Defenders of the Gods: The Realm of the Dead
by LivingDeadGirl322
Summary: Two eras will combine. As death's seer travels into the depths of darkness. Victory will come to strife. The dead wage war on the living. For the doors to open again.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Hello guys~ So this is my very first Percy Jackson fanfic. I'll bring old characters from the actual stories, but this will be made up mostly of original characters. I've been wanting to write a fic like this for so long, like, you guys have no idea how long. I finally got a laptop today, so yay! I can finally write it!

**By the way, I am actually not up to date with the series. I'm not going to lie, but I got a lot of spoilers from my friend who is up to date. I'm going to try, guys!**

**This takes place about… twenty years after the series concludes.**

**Anyway, enjoy guys!**

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Chapter One

It had been a long trip. Said trip had consisted of traveling all the way from Texas while fighting monsters, and running for you life. However, when you are a demigod, that is just an average part of your life. These types of days were happening more and more frequently since the end of the Titan War that took place about twenty years ago. The gods now had to claim their mortal offspring by the time the child reached the age of thirteen. A group of demigods were now returning to Camp Half-Blood from a long journey.

"There. We're almost back!" a slim girl with brown hair said. She looked back at the rest of her group to make sure they were keeping up with her. "Just a little bit further guys! Hurry!"

One of those in the group of four, a boy about age sixteen groaned at her. He was holding his side, still injured from their recent encounter with a hellhound just outside of the city. "Not everyone is as fast as you are, Laney." He winced. "In case you have forgotten, I am injured here."

"Sorry, but I haven't failed a quest yet, and I don't intend on failing at one now, Tyler."

"Your mother is the goddess of victory." Tyler walked past her, but then he paused and looked back. "If you manage to get defeated at something, the Underworld must be freezing over."

Laney shrugged and looked back at the remaining to of their group, who were taking their sweet time. She sighed, knowing how exhausted they were from the recent fight. She couldn't blame them. Penelope, for some odd reason, had not been claimed yet, and she was fourteen. It wasn't unusual for the gods to sometimes not claim one of their children until later in their life, but it still was frustrating for those at the camp. Because of this occasional mishap, a few extra campers were placed in the Hermes cabin every no and then. To the few who were not claimed like Penelope, the other campers and directors kept their eyes on them just waiting for a sign of who their godly parent was. Penelope had been at Camp Half-Blood for nearly a month at this point and she had yet to be claimed. Laney had been sent to retrieve her when she was discovered to be a demigod, and she saw potential in her, so she decided to take her under her wing and act as a mentor until she was to be claimed.

The new recruit, a boy almost fifteen, had also not been claimed yet. Laney sighed as Tyler proceeded into camp to look for some healer from the Apollo cabin. She rubbed her temples in frustration. Two demigods. Both unclaimed.

Laney waited for the two of them to catch up to her. When they did, she nodded at the boy. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

They looked down at the camp. It had extended its grounds over the last few years as it had to add even more cabins than it had after the Titan War had concluded. Beyond the cabins was a lake with a dock and a beach. At other parts of the camp, there was the Big House, where a man in a Hawaiian print shirt and a man in a wheel chair were deeply focused on a card game. There was also a dining pavilion and an amphitheater along with a battle arena for training sessions, an armory that was filled with weapons and even a campfire. No camp would be complete without a campfire.

Laney turned to look over her shoulder at the boy as Penelope made her way down the hill. "So, what did you say you name was again?" The boy was distracted by the view of the camp from the top of the hill. Laney cleared her throat.

"Oh! Sorry, what did you say?"

"Your name. What's your name?" Laney rolled her eyes.

He already wasn't liking her. "Dustin. My name is Dustin."

Laney nodded, pleased that she had gotten a response out of him. "Well, Dustin, let me introduce you to our camp directors. They'll have someone give you a tour of the camp." Dustin was about to open his mouth to say something, but Laney took a guess that it was, _  
Well you're here so why not you?_. "I have practice to do, so I can't do it myself."

They walked down the hill to the Big House. On the large porch, the two men from before were still in the middle of the game. Once Laney and Dustin reached them, Laney didn't interfere with their game, so she just folded her arms over her chest and leaned against the wall of the Big House. Dustin looked back between her and the two men with a bit of confusion.

"You shouldn't disturb their games. They take pinochle very seriously. Well…" Laney paused thinking about her last statement for a moment. "Mr. D takes this game very seriously at least."

"Oh."

"I win again," the man in the wheelchair declared. He then turned around to face Laney and Dustin. "I see. Another successful job for you, Laney. Were there any troubles?"

Laney, hesitantly, nodded. She hated having to admit if anything had gone wrong when she was sent on quests to collect a new demigod. "Yes. It went, surprisingly, quite smoothly until our way back here. Well… about thirty minutes ago actually." Laney continued on with the story about how they were exiting New York City, they had been attacked by a hell hound and Tyler's injury. "The injury isn't too bad, but he is in the infirmary."

"You didn't have any ambrosia or nectar?" The man raised an eye brow.

"We had some… but _someone_-" She jerked her head towards Dustin, emphasizing that he was that someone "-left what we had left on the bus when we got off."

The wheelchair bound man sighed. "Alright then. Laney, go join the rest of your siblings in the Nike cabin. I believe they are about to train."

Laney nodded and walked down the steps of the Big House before running off to join her siblings.

"It's nice to meet you, Dustin," the man said. "I'm Chiron, the camp director." Chiron shifted his position in his wheelchair and he began to grow and get taller until there was nothing to cover his bottom half, which wasn't human at all. His bottom half was like a white stallion. "Forgive me for hiding my true form from you, but I just returned from scouting out another possible demigod. So many are showing up these days."

Dustin was still staring at him. "You're a… centaur?"

Chiron nodded. "That is correct. Now, I believe you are in need of a tour." He then paused, thinking about something. "I'll give you a brief one while we look for your guide, and then she can show you the rest of the camp, and help you pick up your weapon."

"This place is huge…" Dustin said, taking another quick look over the camp as he and Chiron began the leave the Big House. "Honestly, it doesn't look like it could be covered in a day."

"It's grown over the years. We'll probably need to extend the cabins themselves." Chiron looked at the small cabins as the passed by. Correction: they weren't exactly "small", but with the growing number of demigods arriving at both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, things needed to be changed. "There are a few cabins that will be able to stay as is. Artemis's cabin is one of them. She has no children, and the cabin is honorary for her, yet there are times where her Hunters visit and need a place to rest. Another one of these cabins would be Hera's cabin." Chiron motioned towards a large cabin that they were approaching. "Hera was one of the goddesses to swear to be a maiden forever, along with Hesita, Artemis and Athena. Again this cabin is honorary."

Dustin listened in on what Chiron was telling him because he actually found it very interesting. He remembered how his grandfather would always tell him stories about the gods and goddesses, along with his own war stories. Dustin had loved his grandfather's war stories, but sadly that ended about two years ago. Now, he spent most of his time alone at home, school, or whatever you could name. His mother was a professional boxer, and traveled a lot. Sure, Dustin had family to live with back in Texas, but that didn't mean he liked them. His aunt and uncle always were weird to him. Instead of staying in their cramp little house with their organic foods and hippie lifestyle, Dustin stayed out late at night being his rebellious self. It didn't take him long to get suspended for fights at his school.

"Then, of course, there are the cabins of the Big Three. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Their pact against them having mortal children was renounced a long time ago, but still children of the Big Three are rare."

"Are there any here now?" Dustin asked in curiosity.

Chiron scanned their surroundings and caught sight of who he had been looking for. "You're about to meet one."

Chiron walked up to a girl who was, reluctantly, _very_ reluctantly, sitting on the steps of the Aphrodite cabin getting her long, dark hair braided by one of the campers.

"Kylie, how much longer until you are done?"

Kylie was a little blond girl with chocolate brown eyes. She looked to be around age eleven, and her "victim" to be around fifteen. Kylie frowned. "I'm almost done. I wish you would let me do your makeup sometimes. All you wear is that black eyeliner, and it's depressing."

"You wear black eyeliner, too."

"But I wear more than just that." Kylie finished her work. "And done~"

The two girls saw Chiron coming up to them.

"Morning, Chiron," the dark haired girl said, moving the braid so that it went to the side a bit and over one of her shoulders.

"Good morning girls." Chiron nodded at the two of them. "I see you finally got your sister to agree to let you be a hair dresser today, Kylie."

Kylie nodded happily.

Dustin stared at the two of them. Appearance wise, these two girls could not possibly be sisters. They both wore orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirts, but that was about all they had in common. Kylie was obviously a girly girl. She looked like a walking Barbie doll. A miniature one anyway. Along with the camp shirt, she wore pink slippers, blue jean shorts and a necklace with a mustache on in. The other girl had long black hair, gray eyes and she wore black skinny jeans that had rips in them and black converse. How these two could possibly be sisters were beyond him.

"Devin," Chiron began, looking at the dark haired one. "This is Dustin. I need you to give him a tour."

Devin gave Chiron a look of relief, and stood up. "Alright, follow me, newbie."

Kylie frowned as her sister left, having no one to practice her skills on. She then looked up and Chiron and grinned. "Can I braid your tail?"

"Okay, I have to ask this," Dustin began as they walked further into camp. "How are you two sisters?"

Devin looked at him for a bit. People loved asking that question. Devin was actually getting annoyed with having to explain herself and Kylie to them. "Well, her dad married my mom, so we're step-sisters. As you can tell, her mom is Aphrodite, goddess of love. She definitely took on the main trait of being one of her children. We're not just step-sisters. We're also cousins by our god parent."

"So whose your dad?" Dustin suddenly asked.

"What?"

"Your dad is your godly parent, right? Chiron said I was about to meet a child of the big three. I'm guessing he meant you."

Devin nodded.

"So who is it?"

Devin smirked, almost as if this were something she were proud of.

"Hades. The god of the dead and the Underworld."

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**AN: I swear if it weren't for RWBY, I would not have even known of Nike being a goddess. Thank you, Pyrrha. **

**I'm just going to end it here because I need to sleep. It is… let's see.. after 2 in the morning. I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter. The next chapter will continue on with introductions. Maybe our unclaimed demigods will be claimed. We'll have to see~**


	2. Chapter 2

AN: So bad news. I had the chapter like half way done and then it got deleted and for some unknown reason, my laptop refuses to connect to the Internet so I have not been able to type it again and get it posted, so I am using the notepad I my phone and going to copy and paste it. Oddly enough, I type faster this way.

Oh. And for Christmas, my dad got me House of Hades and this weekend, my uncle gave me his extra copy of Mark of Athena. :D I shall be all up to date!

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Dustin should have seen that coming. Devin, in just appearance, seemed like the prime candidate to be the child of the god of the dead. With her dark hair, dark eyes, and pale complexion that almost looked like it had never seen the sunlight. Like the other campers, she wore an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, but the rest if her clothes were black. Black skinny jeans, black fishnet on her arms and black converse. He was guessing the Kylie had put the plastic black rose in her hair as well.

Devin showed him more of the cabins, occasionally going into cabins to introduce him to campers, preferably other year round campers and friends that she had made while stay at the camp.

They approached a cabin with a symbol of an owl on it.

'Owl means wisdom, right?' Dustin thought to himself.

Inside the cabin were two kids, one boy and one girl, who looked like genderbent versions of each other, only the girl looked much more athletic than the boy did. Both of them had blond hair and green eyes.

"Hey, Devin," the girl said once they entered.

"Hi, Mackenzie," Devin greeted her with nod, and then she looked back at Dustin and gestured to the two of them. "Dustin, this Mackenzie and Jacob Jackson, twins, grandchildren of Poseidon and Athena."

The twins waved in unison.

Dustin raised an eyebrow, a bit confused. "Wait... Grandchildren?"

Jacob cut in. "Our parents thought it would be safer for us to be here instead of out there." He shrugged. "We have powerful ancestry, so they're cautious."

"Okay..."

"Still confused?"

"Yeah."

Jacob sighed. "Our parents are demigods. Technically that makes us demigods, too since we both got their Greek blood, too."

"I think I am catching on."

"Good."

"So... Wait... How do they know what cabin to put you guys in?"

Mackenzie spoke this time. "We're not completely sure. I guess it depends which of our parents we take after most." She sighed contently. "My cabin is so relaxing. And I get it all to myself~"

"Yeah... Why did you run out of your cabin last night?" Devin asked her, folding her arms over her chest.

Mackenzie sighed, this time not nearly as happy. "There was a spider."

Devin face palmed. "You take on after your dad and yet you have your mom's arachnophobia..."

"Hey! Spiders are scary," Jacob cut in.

"Right..." Devin walked towards the door. "Well, on with the tour."

Dustin followed her out. "So, besides Kylie, do you have anymore siblings?"

Devin shook her head, the black rose becoming loose in her hair. "Not here. But yeah, but one of them is related to me because she is Pluto's daughter, which is Hades's Roman self. She and her husband are staying at the Roman camp."

"Why would they stay there?"

"New Rome. Camp Jupiter has it's own city. It lets demigods from that camp raise families, have careers, etc. Some of the demigods here never leave because some of them attract too many monsters." Devin rubbed her arm nervously almost as if she were sensitive to the subject of monsters, but the dark haired girl brushed it off. "Anyway, I am guessing Chiron didn't take you to get a weapon yet."

Dustin nodded and pulled out his pockets. "I'm weapon less."

"Right." Devin began walking to what seemed like a media sized tool shed that someone would have in their back yards. She motioned for him to follow her. "Welcome to the armory."

The inside of the armory looked nothing like the outside. The inside was clean and organized, and it looked much larger. There were rows of weapons hanging on the wall, and cross the armory were shelves with smaller weapons such as daggers. From the door way, it looked like an endless hallway of weapons. Dustin had to do a double take. It looked so small from the outside.

"What do you use for a weapon?" He asked.

"I don't need one."

Before he could ask anymore questions, she handed him a sword. It was a simple looking weapon. Celestial bronze blade and matching gold hilt. It made Dustin feel like he was holding a rock though, so he set it on the closest table.

"That ones a definite no."

They spent the next couple of minutes trying to find him a weapon. This one was too heavy. That one was too light like holding into cloud. While Devin stared at the weapons trying to decide which one to try next, Dustin decided to look around for himself. He should be able to find his weapon on his own, but none of them caught his eye. Not until his eyes lay upon another sword. The blade, like the other weapons were made of celestial bronze. The word Polémos was carved into the hilt.

"Warfare," he said. "How did I just read that?"

"All demigods who are children of Greek gods can speak, read and write Greek. Those who are born to Roman gods are the same, but the language they understand is Latin." Devin shrugged. "You're dyslexic, right? Join the club. Our brains are hardwired for Ancient Greek. Don't forget being ADHD-"

"How did you-"

"How do I know? We all are. Battle reflexes."

"Oh."

Devin nodded, walking back out of the armory. She had to hold back a laugh at what she saw. "Nice tail, Chiron."

Chiron had been trotting past when the two exited the armory. Obviously, like most other people at the camp - except Mr. D - the centaur couldn't say no to Kylie. This was the main reason that it wasn't hard to believe the young child of the goddess of love was able to charm speak.

"The bows work for you," Devin continued sarcastically.

"I know! Doesn't it look lovely?" Kylie asked. She had been following Chiron around the camp admiring her handy work, ignoring the snickers that Chiron had reviewed as they passed by. She gasped at the sight of a lose hair on her sister's head. "Some hairs are out of place! I have I fix it!" She reached for Devin's hair only to have her hand slapped away.

"No touching," Devin told her in a flat tone of voice.

Kylie pouted.

"So, about the cabins," Dustin began, gaining the others attention. "Which one do I belong in?"

"We won't know until your claimed."

"And when will that be?"

"You were supposed to be claimed when you were thirteen." Devin sighed. "Sometimes they forget a few. It's a pain. We all get claimed eventually."

"Sometimes they don't get claimed though... We can just tell by what they can do," Kylie added in. "Like Devin. She can talk to dead people." She smiled. Devin rubbed her arm nervously again. "She said her brother helped us get here, but I didn't see him though."

"Freaky."

"I'm used to it..."

Chiron decided to end the subject. "Just a reminder about the camp fire tonight." He paused and looked at Kylie. "Don't eat all the chocolate this time."

oooooooooo

Dustin had to admit that he was amazed by the camp fire. It wasn't a normal camp fire that stayed the same red orange color. This particular fire changed it's color based on the emotions of those around it. He looked around for those he knew. He saw Laney sitting for her siblings from the Nike cabin. All of them looked extremely athletic. There was Tyler, the one who had gotten injured earlier that day, now fully healed and sitting with his siblings. Some were sitting toward the front with instruments and singing. Obviously children of Apollo. Penelope sat with those from the Hermes cabin, still having not been claimed. The twins sat together on a single log. He wasn't really surprised to see Devin sitting with her sister. He guessed Kylie had demanded it. Sitting separately from the campers were Chiron and the man in the tiger print Hawaiian shirt from that afternoon. He remembered Laney telling him that was Mr. D - also known as Dionysis, the god of wine.

"Alright," Mr. D stood up to speak. "I suppose this is as good a time as any. We have a new camper." He stood by Dustin. "This is Justin-"

"Dustin," he corrected.

"Whose his parent?" Someone in the crowd asked.

"We don't know."

Most of the crowd, besides the few that already knew that, groaned.

However, almost as soon as that happened, a red light shone above his head. He noticed everyone was staring at him. Dustin looked up above his head to see a spear glowing above his head.

Chiron was the first to now, everyone else followed his direction. Mr. D did it reluctantly. "Hail Dustin Evans, son of Ares, god of war."

The name of his weapon made sense to him now. Warfare. Now he found out he was a child of the war god. Dustin actually found this quite fitting. Thought not obvious at first, he was a sort tempered and violent person. Everytime he would get himself into a fight at school, he would come out with only a few cuts and bruises and the other kid would probably be sent to the hospital. He could see how Ares could fall for his mother. She was a boxer, a great fighter. Dustin also had warrior blood in his lineage with other family members, like his grandfather, fighting in wars. Usually people were surprised to find out who their parent was, but to him it all made sense.

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AN: My friend found a tweet from Rick Riordan about a spoiler from the Blood of Olympus, and if it is true I am going to be so sad, yet I am using said spoiler... :/

I wanted to get this out tonight. I figured I kept you waiting long enough.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Hello again guys. I don't really have much of an author's note this time, so I will just get on with the third chapter. This one will be longer than the other two. Promise!

I'm bringing in more characters. One based off of my friend. :3

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The campers from the Ares cabin greeted Dustin into the family quite well. However, he soon figured out how different he was from his new siblings in terms of personality. While many of the children of Ares possessed very violent and reckless personalities, Dusin was just short tempered and rebellious. He usually had to be pushed to be in a fight. His new brothers and sisters would gladly be the instigators in a fight. Appearance wise, it was onions that they were all related. Children of Ares were well built and varied in muscularity. They all had the same brown hair and brown eyes.

The next few days, Dustin had spent getting used to his new life. Not just his new bunch of family members, but the life of a demigod in general. He joined his fellow Ares campers for meals and training everyday. He also had lessons with the twins, mainly Jacob since he took on more from their mother, about the gods and goddesses. Dustin had been ashamed to admit that he knew very little about them, especially since he was half Greek god.

"Alright, now let's see how much you remember," Jacob began. "How did Medusa become a gorgon?"

"Athena turned both her and her sisters into one."

"Why?"

Dustin thought for a moment. "Medusa was meeting with Poseidon in one of Athena's temples."

"Good." Jacob paused to think of another question. "Which goddesses swore to be maidens forever?"

"Artemis and Hera for sure. Then... Hestia and Athena? Right?"

Jacob nodded. "Yep. Though Athena does have children. They're born from her head just like she was."

"Your mom was born from a head...?"

"Yep."

"Alright then..."

"That actually confuses people sometimes. 'But she has kids... So how is she a maiden?'" Jacob sighed.

"So," Dustin decided to change the subject. "Are you and your sister playing capture the flag tonight?"

"Yeah. Everyone does." Jacob paused, rethinking that statement. "Well except Devin."

"Why?"

"She cheats. Shadow travel."

"That sounds cool."

Jacob shivered. "Dude... It's cold and dark. I guess she's used to that because when she is having a lazy day she shadow travels all over the camp."

"Talking to the dead and shadow traveling. Devin gets all the cool stuff." Dustin almost sounded disappointed.

"Some demigods have other abilities besides those their kin get. Couple decades ago there was a son of Hephaestus who could control fire. Devin can control the dead. Talk to them, sense them, etc. Typical thing for a child of Hades... I think. Then there is a girl in the Apollo cabin. One of the things Apollo represents is prophecy. Elena sees visions. I can't think of a time where her visions did not come true. Though sometimes she gets all weird..."

Dustin raised an eyebrow at this. "Meaning?"

Jacob sighed. "Sometimes she will blank out and start speaking in Ancient Greek. Yeah, we can all understand her, but it takes a while to figure out what she means sometimes."

"How weird could it be?"

"They're like prophecies. Like the ones some of us to go on a quest. She's kind of like a secondary oracle for us." Before Dustin could ask, Jacob continued on. "After the Titan War, we got a new oracle. My dad actually met her trying to save my mom. They ran into each other at Hoover Dam."

"That sounds like a good dam story." Dustin laughed at himself.

"You have no idea how many times they joked about that." Jacob laughed a bit, too. "Athena was so confused. Oh yeah. Sometimes we get to meet gods on quests."

"Have you met any?" Dustin asked, getting up from where he was sitting to stretch. He had been sitting down for over an hour, and it was horrible because of his ADHD.

Jacob nodded. "Yeah. A lot of them actually. Athena and Poseidon saw me and my sister a few years after we were born. Athena wasn't too happy though. She never did approve of my parents relationship. Told my dad that straight out."

Dustin felt like Athena maybe wasn't the best goddess to get on her bad side. He had heard a lot of stories about the gods since his arrival at Camp Half-Blood a week ago. Jacob and Mackenzie were not the only demigods at the camp to meet the gods. Apparently some campers, those who stay year round, can go to Olympus and sit in on the winter solstice conference. According to Jacob, it was probably the only time in the entire year that they would be able to meet their godly parent.

There was suddenly a short blond figure standing in front of them. Kylie looked at them, hopeful. "Have you two seen my sister? Elena said she needs to talk to her."

"No. Why?"

Kylie shrugged. "I don't know. She didn't say. She did say it was urgent though."

The horn suddenly blew, signaling that it was time for dinner, and then afterwards the game began.

The dining hall had also been expanded over the years. Even now it was still crowded with demigods, Chiron, and Mr. D. The cabins were separated into tables. For example, Ares's children sat at one table, Persephone's children at another, and Athena's at another. Dustin wasn't sure why the campers were separated during dinner and camp fires. He sat at the Ares table with his brothers and sisters. Despite the apparent separation rule, the twins Jacob and Mackenzie sat at the table meant for Poseidon. A few tables remained empty. Devin was still no where to be found, and since his last child, Thalia, Zeus had not had anymore children.

Throughout the dinner, groups got up and dumped a piece of their food into the fire. Burnt offerings for the gods.

When dinner was almost over, Chiron stomped his hood against the stone floor, gaining the attention of everyone in the dining pavilion. "Just a reminder," the centaur began. "Capture the flag will be tonight after dinner. Report in front of the woods with your cabin, weapons and armor on, after dinner."

The campers cheered happily.

As instructed, everyone met in the area of Camp Half-Blood just outside the woods.

"So, what's in there?" Dustin asked one of his siblings. He hadn't be into the woods yet, but he definitely was curious about what dwelled inside, and now he would find out.

"Not much," one of his sisters, who preferred to be called Sam, answered him. "Sometimes there could be monsters in there, but it's rare."

"Monsters might be inside? Awesome!"

"Don't get your hopes up. The last a monster got in was almost twenty five years ago... I think."

Dustin looked around at the other campers. Of course, the twins were together. He figured they must have been inseparable. He also noticed they didn't talk very much to each other. Twin telepathy, maybe? If that  
was even real. Kylie was with her siblings. He wasn't at all surprised to see the majority of the cabin putting on makeup and fixing their hair. Kylie, however, was looking around, probably looking for her sister.

Chiron walked through the crowd of demigods and stopped when he was in the center of them. "Teams! Get with your teams."

The campers obeyed the centaur. Dustin stayed with his siblings. Sam was holding the banner, which had the symbol of their father, Ares, on it. They were leading the red team. On their side was the Aphrodite cabin, Persephone cabin, Hermes cabin and Hephaestus cabin. The remaining cabins sided with the Nike cabin. It looked like there were more cabins on their side. Dustin didn't really like their chances. The groups went into the forest together, but then they split apart to hide their banners. Some campers were left to stand guard, and the others were defenses trying to capture the enemy flag. Dustin was one of those on the defenses. He went off with Sam and their brother, Alejandro. Alejandro was about a few years younger than he was, and Dustin guessed he was about thirteen. As far as he knew, Alejandro was born in San Antonio, but his mother was from Mexico and supposedly he was descended from Aztec warriors. If Dustin remembered anything from his three months in Spanish class, it was that Aztec people performed human sacrifices. He hoped this kid wasn't into that.

"So where are you from again?" Alejandro asked his as they went to find a hiding spot amongst the forest. He spoke with an accent. His family must not has spoken in English very much.

"Dallas. I lived close to the downtown area." He sighed contently. "There was a great Italian restaurant there... I miss it."

"I lived with my grandparents most of the time. My mom is in the military."

"Which branch?"

"Um... The Air Force I think." Alejandro shrugged. "Anyway, my grandparents are very traditional. You should taste the food they would always make me, too!" He smiled, and then looked at Dustin questionably. "Have you ever had a tamale?"

"What are those?"

"You've never had one?!"

"Shh!" Sam shushed them. Dustin was guessing that she was the more serious one of the family. Plus she was the cabin leader. Sam was seventeen and from Miami. Before she had been discovered as a demigod at age fourteen, she had been involved in several sports, mainly the more violent ones like wrestling. The girl wasn't super skinny, yet not too muscular. She motioned for the two of them to get down behind a rock. Sam held a finger to her lips, and pointed to the other side of the rock. Beyond the trees about twenty feet away were Tyler and Laney.

It didn't surprise any of them that Laney would be on the defenses.

Sam gave a signal to Alejandro, and the younger of the three reached behind him for an arrow. Alejandro had such amazing accuracy that people thought he was a child of Apollo when he first arrived. As instructed, the young boy took aim and shot. The arrow hit a tree, as planned to gain their attention. Chiron made it a rule not to kill anyone, so the arrow missed Laney's face by an inch.

"Of course," the daughter of Nike muttered to herself. "Typical for an enemy to be hiding out."

Laney looked in the direction that the arrow had come from.

"I'll handle her," Sam told them. Then she added a quiet: "She takes this game way too seriously."

That left Dustin and Alejandro to take care of Tyler, but Alejandro insisted on going to look for their banner instead. As they were running, Alejandro shot at Tyler, who eve as a son of Apollo, didn't have aim as good as Alejandro, and he was trapped to a tree by arrows.

"I'm out now," Alejandro told Dustin as they came to a stop at the edge of a creek.

"Let's hope the rocks aren't slick..." Dustin muttered as he was about to step in.

The water suddenly splashed him in the face.

"I'm sorry!" A voice called.

Dustin wiped the water from his face. Now on the other side of the creek stood Mackenzie and Jacob. He sighed. Laney really was a strategic person. Put two descendants of Poseidon, god of the sea, by water. Well played. Dustin secretly hoped a spider would show up so he could get passed them. Spiders would be nice right now.

Mackenzie waved her arms and started to control the water again. This time, she willed it to weigh the two boys down. Alejandro was scrawny, especially for being a son of Ares. He was knocked down easy. Dustin fought against the force of the water, thought it tired him out.

He looked at Alejandro. "You okay?" He helped him up.

"Yeah... You should probably go ahead though. I won't be much help now." He tried ringing the water out of his clothes, but the oversized armor and soaked clothing only weighed him down.

"Okay." Dustin looked at the twins as Mackenzie was about to attack again. Again. Spiders would be great right now. "Hey! Jacob! There's a spider on your shoe!"

Though he figured it was a trick, Jacob tensed and looked down at his foot. The light and angle he was standing made it just right and to him, a shadow large enough to be a certain eight legged bug was there. This caused both Jacob and his sister to scream and he kicked his foot. This gave Dustin enough of a distraction to run through the creek, past them and into the new patch of woods.

"Dustin! Wait!" A few feet in, he heard the voice call him, and saw a familiar blond running towards him.

"I thought your cabin just did their makeup during this..."

Kylie looked offended and followed her arms over her chest. "Hey. Not all of us do, and besides even in a fight we still have to look good."

"I guess that can't be denied," Dustin replied sarcastically. "So what's up?"

"Oh yeah!" Kylie smiled. "I found the banner. It's this way." She grabbed his arm and started dragging him towards the blue team's banner. The team had placed it in an open spot in the middle of a small clearing. "We found it!" The girl declared happily, and she started running toward it.

'This doesn't feel right...' Dustin thought, noticing the lack of watchers. "Kylie! Wait!"

An arrow was suddenly shot out of from the top of a tree, and impaled the daughter of Aphrodite in the right shoulder. The shooter instantly knew he had messed up. Other scouts shouted at him.

"Levi! You're a dead man!"

"She's going to kill you when she finds out!"

"Uh... Yeah..." Dustin started, making his voice loud enough for the scouts to hear. "Nice hiding spots and all, but you know, yelling gave you all away. You're all dead when Laney finds out why you all lost." He helped Kylie get to the flag, who winced every time her shoulder was touched or moved.

Kylie touched the banner and it changed. Instead of the symbol of Nike, the banner turned fuchsia with the symbol of Aphrodite. "We've never won a game before," Kylie told Dustin.

The horn blew. The game was over.

Almost immediately, Kylie was taken to the infirmary to get the arrow removed from her shoulder and given some ambrosia and nector to ease the pain and help the wound heal.

Everyone gathered in the central part of camp. Lately, they had thrown parties after every game of capture the flag. However, not everyone was having a good time since Levi the shooter was currently fearing for his life.

"How's your shoulder?" Penelope asked Kylie a few minutes after the young blond had arrived at the party. During the course of the past week, Penelope had finally been claimed as a daughter of Apollo.

"It still hurts..." Kylie told her. She shivered as a shadow passed by their feet, but she smiled. "She's finally back."

"Hey sis," Devin greeted her, catching eye of her wrapped up shoulder. "Who did that?"

"Don't worry about it."

"You were shot in the shoulder and you expect me not to worry about it?" Devin payed no attention to the shadows that were emanating around her, until Kylie gave her a warning look and they disappeared.

"Where were you? You missed the game," Kylie told her.

"Don't worry about it," Devin answered. "So, who won?"

Kylie raised her hand happily. "We did!"

Devin took noticed of a certain daughter of the victory goddess at the party. "I guess Laney didn't take the loss too well. Oh well."

The step-sisters walked over to a table with drinks. The rest of their "crew" was standing over there as well. Alejandro and Dustin were still soaked from the game. Alejandro was trying to get water out of his ears.

"I'm sorry. Did I get you too much?" Mackenzie asked.

"Sí..." Alejandro sighed.

"I'm gone for a day and I miss all the fun," Devin cut in. "What a shame."

Jacob was paranoid that a spider was on his shoe. "You misout on too much."

"Elena!" A girl called.

All eyes turned towards where it came from. Elena, the girl from the Apollo cabin who saw visions, was standing very tensely. Normally children of Apollo had golden brown eyes, but her eyes were an ominous white. They got that way when she went into vision mode, but this time she wasn't having a vision. She began to speak, in Ancient Greek.

"Dýo epochés tha syndyázoun  
Ópo̱s mánti̱ tou thanátou taxidév̱ei sta váthi̱ tou skótous  
I̱ níki̱ tha érthei se sýnkrousi̱  
Oi nekroí tou polémou to̱n misthó̱n gia tis synthí̱kes diavío̱si̱s  
Gia tis pórtes na anoíxoun kai páli..."

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AN: You'll find out what Elena said in the next chapter. It's a crappy prophecy, but it is honestly all that I can think of. Sorry.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Good evening world! -starting for write this at night- I'm a night dweller~

We have had mid terms all week. Thankfully I only had five and my final one is tomorrow morning. Yay~ then finally a new semester begins and only eighteen more weeks until I officially graduate high school! Yay for seniors!

I am officially up to date with with Heroes of Olympus books, and I am sad because we have to wait until October (I think..) for the last book. For now, I am reading the Hunger Games trilogy.

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Chapter Four: Family History and Prophecies

Normally, it was against the rules for people not of the same godly parent to be in the same cabin, but here they all were, in Cabin Three because Mackenzie claimed it had enough room for them to hold a meeting. That night at the party, Elena had spoken a prophecy, and it was keeping them on edge trying to figure out what it meant.

"Prophecies can have more than one meaning," Devin had said, her never changing monotone voice not lightening to mood in the cabin one bit. "You think it means one thing, and you can start going in the direction of what you think it means, but it can have an entirely different purpose."

"You're so not helping..."

"I'm just stating the truth."

Jacob sighed. "Anyway... Devin, I think this involves you."

"It better not." The thought of being involved in any prophecy made the daughter of Hades feel tense. Prophecies meant leaving camp. Sure, she had left Camp Half-Blood a few times, but those times were to visit her siblings at the camp in California for Roman demigods, Camp Jupiter. Being a child of one of the Big Three was much worse than being the child of another, less powerful god. They had a stronger scent for monsters. At least now the treaty against Zeus, Poseidon and Hades having children had lifted, so she didn't have to worry about gods coming after her. However, her powers were unpredictable. She only one she had mastered was shadow traveling, but she did end up in places like France and Germany when she first started that.

Jacob said a line from the propecy. "Death's seer travels into the depths of darkness."

Devin slumped where she sat against the marble wall.

"Who else can see the dead besides you?" Dustin asked her. "Didn't you say you had a sister?"

"She's the daughter of Pluto. Pluto is different from Hades. Pluto is more known for being the god of riches rather than the dead. As far as I know, only children of Hades can commune with the dead."

"Okay... So... Any other children of Hades?" Dustin asked almost a bit hesitantly.

The room fell silent for a while.

"None that are alive." Devin sighed, looking down. "I'm the only one."

"What about the 'depths of darkness' part? Any ideas?" Kylie asked, wanting to change the subject. She knew her sister wasn't pleased when it came to being the only child of a powerful god.

"What's darker than the Underworld? Nothing. I have to go to the Underworld. I just don't know why yet." Devin stood up. "It would be much easier just to do this alone, but seeing as three is the best number to go on a quest, two people have to come with me."

"Uh..." Jacob cut in. "Just a suggestion, but the prophecy mentioned victory coming to a strife."

Devin narrowed her dark eyes at him.

"Not on good terms with Laney?" Dustin guessed.

Mackenzie managed not to snicker. "They hate each other."

"Why?"

"Not important." She held up her hand, and the she observed the group. Not once in her time at Camp Half-Blood had she been in the world outside of the camps or Olympus. Not since she was nine. Devin wasn't sure how to lead a quest, but if she wanted to come back alive, she knew she needed people who could handle themselves in a fight. Her last thought, of course, was her sister. Kylie was a pretty good fighter for a daughter of Aphrodite, but Devin didn't want her going outside the camp's borders. The twins were a good choice, but their grandfather was Poseidon, one of the Big Three. She didn't want to risk it, and she had met their parents on multiple occasions. She wasn't looking forward to what would happen if anything happened to them on a quest. That left... "Come on, war head. You're going."

"Don't I get a say?" Dustin asked her.

Devin shook her head and sighed. "I'm going to be in my cabin for a while trying to figure out the rest of the prophecy."

"It would be easier to figure the rest of it out together," Jacob cut in before the girl had a chance to even turn away. "Besides, you'll probably disappear again. Sit."

Devin reluctantly sat down, but instead of on the floor again she's at down on another bed in the cabin by a water fountain. She felt like she needed some space.

Jacob sighed and looked towards the rest of the group. "Anyway, back to figuring out the prophecy."

Devin spoke from her corner of the room. "It's easier to figure them out as the quest happens, wise guy..."

"Says the one whose never been on a quest. How would you know so much about them if the only places you go are the camps?"

"I have my sources." Devin leaned against the headboard of the bed. She started to search through her pockets, pulling out a gold coin. A drachma. Greek money. She walked over to the fountain, and with the light hitting it just right, it was perfect to make an Iris message.

"Stay quiet while I do this," she told the others. Devin tossed the drachma into the water. "O goddess, accept my offering. Show me Hazel Zhang, New Rome."

An image began to flicker in the water, and in it appeared a woman in her early thirties. She had curly dark hair and dark skin. She smiled, recieving the message from Devin. She greeted her happily.

"Whose that?" Dustin asked the rest of the group.

"Her sister from the Roman camp," Kylie answered and Dustin could detect a bit of jealousy in her voice, but the daughter of Aphrodite tried to hide it, smiling. "She's really nice."

"You've met her?"

Kylie nodded. "Yeah. Devin took me with her one time." She shivered as if relishing an unpleasant memory. "Shadow traveling really isn't fun..."

"So cold..." Jacob commented, agreeing.

"Is it really that bad?"

"YES!" The remaining three said unison, causing Devin to shush them.

"So what are the lines to this prophecy?" Hazel asked her Greek half sister in curiosity.

Devin was about to recite it as Elena had in Ancient Greek, but she remembered that Hazel was Roman, not Greek. Roman demigods couldn't understand Greek. Their hardwired language was Latin. She sighed, saying the prophecy in English.

"Two eras will combine  
As death's seer travels into the depths of darkness  
Victory will come to strife  
The dead wage war on the living  
For the doors to open again."

Hazel's eyes held a gleam of hope in them. "Do you think-"

"I don't know, and I don't want you to get your hopes up, Hazel."

The Roman demigod sighed. "Alright. I better go. I need to take Michelle to school."

"Okay. Bye."

The Iris message ended at that. Hazel's image flickered away and the fountain returned to normal.

"What was she talking about?" Mackenzie pried, and her brother tilted his head in curiosity. Even though they were grandchildren of the goddess of wisdom, there was still so many things that they didn't know, and those were the types of things that bothered them the most. This was a trait that they had both inherited from their mother.

Devin sighed, turning on the bed so she could look at the other half bloods in the room. "She was probably hit the most when our brother died. She thinks this prophecy is saying he is meant to come back."

"Why is Hazel thinking that?" Kylie asked. She tried to hide all jealousy she could. She didn't like hearing Devin talk about her /other/ family, yet this was a rare occasion.

"The first two lines."

"Care to elaborate?" Jacob asked.

"The second one is says the seer of death traveling to the depths of darkness. As a child of Hades, I can see the dead. That makes me the seer in the prophecy."

"And the other part?" Jacob pestered her.

Devin leaned back against the head board of the bed. "Hazel is guessing the darkness part is the underworld. She's been there. It's a very dark place."

"And the two eras part?"

"Jacob, just shut up so I can finish."

The blond boy held up his hands defensively, but submitted and remained silent.

"Good. Anyway, neither Hazel nor our brother are from this generation or the one preceding it. Hazel was born in..." She paused, thinking. "I'm guessing in the 1920's because she died in the 1930's-"

This time it was Dustin who interrupted. "But we just saw her. How did she-"

"If you guys will keep your mouths shut, I will get to that part."

"She was brought back to life about twenty years ago from the underworld. Nico was the one who brought her back and he took her to Camp Jupiter in California. The camp for Roman demigods. She was involved in the last Great Prophechy-"

Again, she was interrupted by Dustin. "Which was?"

She sighed. "Seven half bloods must answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall. An oath to keep with a final breath. Foes bear arms to the doors of death."

"Anyway," she quickly added on before anyone else could talk. "Annabeth, Mackenzie and Jacob's mom, had followed the Mark of Athena and retrieved the Athena Parthenos from Rome. They needed to get the statue here to Camp Half-Blood. A demigod from the Roman camp, Reyna had arrived on their ship and agreed, very reluctantly, to take the statue here. My brother went with her, and he used his shadow travel to get them there." She sighed. "By the time they got there a war had broken out between the two camps. Their arrival had stopped it momentarily. Octavian-" Devin said his name with venom I her normally emotionless voice. From what she had been told about him, she hated his guts as much as everyone else did. "Octavian called Reyna a traitor for assisting the Greeks. Things quickly went down hill from there. You guys can guess what went down."

The cabin was silent for a long time. The only sound came from the fountain.

Dustin was the first to break the silence. "Is there a Great Prophecy now?"

Jacob answered this time. "Not that we know of..." He sighed. "I just hope the next doesn't involve our family. The last two has."

Devin stood up from the bed she was sitting on. "I better go find another person to go along. See you guys later."

She walked out of the cabin.

Dustin looked at the rest of them. "War head? Why'd she call me that?"

"Maybe because you're a son of Ares?" Kylie suggested. She was painting her nails a sky blue color. That explained why the cabin had begun to get the slightest scent of nail polish mixed along with the scent of the ocean.

The room made him think of the beach. Especially seagulls. Dustin hated seagulls. When he was younger during spring break and the summer his family would make the long trip from Dallas to Galveston for a vacation, and they went to the beach nearly everyday. One time when he was seven, a seagull stole his cookies. He hated the little devil birds ever since.

"Done!" Kylie declared. "Don't they look pretty?"

"Nice job," Mackenzie told her.

"I can do your nails. I have blue!"

"You do?"

Kylie nodded, and to prove her point she pulled out a selection of different colors of blue nail polish from the bag she had brought with her.

Yep. She was definitely a daughter of Aphrodite.

"I'm going to meet up with the rest of my cabin. We have practice in a few minutes." Dustin tapped the sheath of Warfare with the tips of his fingers. He stood up and left Cabin Three.

Outside he could see campers getting ready for their daily activities. Just as he had guessed, his siblings from the Ares cabin leaving said cabin to go do some battle training.

He walked to join them. Dustin made it half way to them when he heard two familiar voices.

"You have to come along," the first voice said.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," the second one said.

The first one was in a plain tone, yet it held a hint of reluctance. Obviously Devin. The second one was confident yet snobby. Yep. Definitely Laney.

Dustin was surprised. Devin was actually going along with asking Laney to join the quest. However by the sound of it, it wasn't working so far.

"Do you really think you were my first choice?"

Dustin found the source to be from the Nike cabin. He knew he shouldn't ease drop, but he wanted to know if he was going to be stuck with the two of them for... The gods only know how long!

Devin folded her arms over her chest.

Laney narrowed her eyes at her. "Give me one reason why I should."

Devin answered quickly. "Victory will come to a strife."

"Excuse me?"

"A line from the prophecy. Looks like you'll have some kind of conflict during this."

"I didn't agree to it." Laney put her hands up defensively, yet her scowl still remained.

"Besides," Devin continued. "/When/ the quest is a success it will be another chance for you to prove how victorious you are." That part, Devin couldn't care less about.

Laney thought about the for a moment, processing the information that Devin had just given her. She had to give it to her. Devin was very persuasive.

"Fine. I'll go."

"Good." Devin walked to the door. "We leave tomorrow at noon."

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AN: Sorry it too a while to get this chapter out. Hopefully the next one will not take so long.

Did you guys know that January 28 is Nico's birthday? His birthday was Tuesday and I missed it. Oh well. Happy Belated Birthday, Nico!


	5. Chapter 5

AN: I miss having my laptop. Posting new chapters is such a pain without it. I gotta write a chapter in a note, copy and paste it, the delete the note to make another chapter. Long chapters take a while!

I have been thinking of the character inspirations for the characters in here. Most of them are still in the works.

Dustin was originally based off of one of my friends that I meant at a con. His character design is still in the works because I do not want to go with the typical main character thing... It'll be hard.

Kylie is forever going to be based off of my younger sister. That's staying.

Devin took a while, but I decided, after seeing the movie a second time, to base her off of Elsa from Frozen (you'll see why later on). There may be similar traits from Blake Belladonna from RWBY in there, too.

Laney is a /lovely/ mix of Weiss and Pyrrha from RWBY. Pyrrha's last name, Nikos, was taken from Nike, the goddess of victory. Secondly, she is obsessed with being the best and she definitely sees herself as above the others at camp. That is portrayed by Weiss many times in the show.

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Chapter Five: The Quest Begins

Usually, campers were excited to go on their first quest. Dustin didn't go on that list. He had only been at Camp Half-Blood a little over a week. Unlike his siblings, Dustin wasn't very confident in his fight abilities yet. On top of that, he would be stuck... With two girls... Who absolutely hated each other.

Right away he knew the quest would be a pain. The fact that neither Laney not Devin could say anything to each other without bickering played a huge part in that factor.

Noon the next day came quicker than expected.

Devin looked sternly at Mackenzie and Jacob, the glare coming from her dark eyes sending chills down their spines. "Take care of my sister," she had told them after saying goodbye the the eleven year old.

The twins nodded.

In her hands, Laney held a checklist. "Alright. Weapons-" she looked only at Dustin and herself. "Check. Ambrosia and nector?" This time she looked at Devin, having handed her two sacks of ambrosia and nector earlier that morning. She narrowed her eyes when she did not answer. "Devina. I am talking to you."

At the use of her full name, Devin straightened up. Instead of answering, she took the sacks of ambrosia and threw them at Laney. "There. Happy?"

"Very," Laney answered sarcastically.

Dustin sighed from where he stood with a few campers from the Ares cabin. This was going to be a long trip.

"Good luck," Sam told him, giving him an encouraging pat on the back.

As he joined the other two, he suppressed a snicker. "Devina?"

"Never call me that," was all she had to say before she walked past him to the top of Half-Blood Hill. He decided not to pester her about it. From what he had heard, Devin was scary when she was angry, and he didn't need her conjuring up skeletons to murder him. He could picture himself arriving in the Underworld:

'Hey. How'd you get here?'

'I pissed off the daughter of Hades.'

'Idiot.'

Meeting his end because he made a girl mad was certainly not on his bucket list.

"Hey, war head, hurry up," said girl called for him from where she and Laney stood at the top of the hill. Next to them, stood a tall tree that once was a girl named Thalia Grace.

Jacob had told him the story of her. According to him, that was his and Mackenzie's aunt... Or second cousin. Whatever. She was the daughter of Zeus. She had sacrificed so that two other demigods, Annabeth and a son of Hermes named Luke, could make it across the borders safely. As she was dying, Zeus took pity on his daughter and turned her into the three. What remained of her soul became the border that surrounded the camp and protected it. However, years later the tree was poisoned. Jacob told Dustin about a quest his and Mackenzie's parents had taken to retrieve the Golden Fleece with Dustin's sister, Clarisse. They had placed the fleece upon Thalia's tree and it healed. Soon afterwards everyone at the camp realized how powerful the magic in the fleece was, and Thalia was alive again. Now she was one of Artemis's hunters.

What was up with daughters of the Big Three joining Artemis? And dead people coming back to life? Dustin was definitely seeing a trend.

Dustin joined Laney and Devin at the top of the hill.

He didn't know what would happen on this quest. He didn't know who they would meet or what they would meet. He didn't know who would come back, nor did he know of any of them would come back.

His first quest. Dustin was sure the overwhelming feeling of anxiety he was feeling was normal.

"So where is the Underworld?" Dustin asked. Jacob never told him that.

"The entrance is in Los Angeles."

Dustin looked at Devin, the hint of shock on his face. "You've got to be kidding."

"Nope." She adjusted the bag she was carrying.

"Why don't you just shadow travel us there? Wouldn't that be quicker?"

Laney rolled her eyes and walked down the hill. She was half way threw the clearing heading to the narrow road before the other two followed her.

"Traveling such a long distance would take a lot out of me just by myself. Adding two more people would make it worse." Devin began to adjust the hair tie that held her braid in place. She agreed to let her sister do that before she left for the quest. "Trust me. I wish I could just shadow travel us there, too." She sighed. "We'll have to make our way across the country."

Laney was standing at the side of the roads checking for any oncoming traffic. She pulled out a drachma and spoke in Ancient Greek. "Stêthi, Ô hárma diabolês!"

Dustin translated it to himself. She said, "Stop, Charit of Damnation!"

Laney tossed the drachma onto the road and it disappeared.

At first nothing happened.

"Great," Dustin said. "You just wasted a drachma."

However, right after he said that, the asphalt on the road began to darken. A car, a taxi as stormy gray as a child of Athena's eyes would be, appeared before them and the door swung open.

They climbed in, Dustin sitting between the two of them because they refused. Laney told the drivers that they just wanted to get into the city, and paid the old woman with drachma in advance.

"Tempest give me the eye!" The old woman sitting behind the wheel. She slammed her foot on the gas pedal and they took off. Already it felt like they were going 100 miles and hour. Dustin felt like he was going to be sick.

"No!" The woman on the pass anger side yelled. "I want the eye! Give it to me!"

"Wasp, I am driving! I need the eye! Give me it!"

"I'm gonna be sick..." Dustin mumbled.

Devin and Laney moved closer to the doors.

"Give me the tooth, Anger!" Tempest, the middle one said. "I'll give you the eye!"

Anger took her hands off the wheel, trading her equally old sister for the eye.

They were approaching the city and Anger slammed her foot on the breaks. If it weren't for their seat belts, Dustin, Devin and Laney would have been sent flying through the windshield.

"Exit!" The three old women said. They didn't hesitate to leave.

Dustin was relieved to see a trash can where they got out because he immediately ran to it and vomited. "Never... Again..." He took amount to compose himself. "Who were they?"

"The Gray Sisters," Laney answered. "They run that taxi. It happens to be the fastest mode of transportation from New York to Camp Half-Blood. I use it when I go on quests."

Dustin noticed how no one paid attention to the fact that a smoky taxi just appeared and suddenly vanish. "Uh... Why are they-"

"The Mist," Laney answered quickly, the annoyance obvious in her tone. "Did Jacob not tell you any of this?"

Before Dustin could say anything, Devin made an irritated noise, rubbing her temples.

"I can hear the voices of so many ghosts right now..." She complained.

"I'm guessing you didn't hear very many at camp."

"Half-Blood, no. Jupiter, yes, and those ghosts don't like me because I'm Greek." She sat down on bench. "This was much worse before I got to camp..."

"We don't have time to sit around while you get rid of your headache," Laney told her. Her arms were folded over her chest. "Just ignore them and stop complaining." Laney began to walk down the street.

Devin narrowed her eyes at Laney's disappearing form. "Just ignore them. Stop complaining," she imitated her voice the best that she could. "Control freak."

They caught up with her.

"Do you have any idea where we're supposed to go?"

"Each quest is different, so I am not completely sure." Even with that, Laney refused to let the confidence drop from her voice.

Devin sighed. "I could shadow travel the three of us, but only a short distance. At least to get us out of the city."

Laney sighed. "How far can you get us?"

"I don't know. The most of have shadow traveled is two people, but three..." Devin paused, giving it some thought. "Maybe the New York, Pennsylvania border... Give or take."

"Worth a shot," Dustin said. "How does this shadow traveling thing work?"

Devin held out her hands towards Laney and Dustin. "Hold on and don't let go."

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AN: I don't really care much for this chapter... I hit writer's block a few times so this is definitely one of the weaker chapters. Sorry guys.


	6. Chapter 6

AN: I found my old DVD for the Lightning Thief and watched the movie again. I have I say I don't hate the first movie, but the movie for the Sea of Monsters was just horrible.

I'm being brave and reading the entire series again. From the Lightning Thief to the House of Hades. :) I really have no life.

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Chapter Six: Meeting Spring and the Hellhound

The trio landed within a patch of woods.

Dustin knew what everyone was talking about when they talked about shadow traveling with Devin. It wasn't fun. Just as Kylie, Jacob and Mackenzie had said it was dark (well when you're traveling in the shadows.. Duh!) and cold. It did saw them probably a day or two of traveling. The problem was that they had no idea where they were. On top of that, wherever they were, they would be there for a while. Devin must have traveled farther than expected because almost as soon as they landed, she sat down against the nearest tree.

"I need a nap..." She mumbled. Then she closed her eyes and, just like that, she was out.

Laney sighed. "At least this shortened our quest time by a little... Leave her to rest."

Dustin looked down, making sure that Warfare was still strapped to his waist after the shadow traveling. Thankfully it was still there. "Watch her," he told Laney, earning him a glare. The daughter of Nike hated being given orders. She preferred to give them. "I'm going to try to find out where we are."

Laney grumbled. "Fine, and don't worry about your sword. The mortals won't see it. They'll see it as something else."

"And what will that be?"

"I don't know. They might not even see it at all."

"You don't sound very sure."

"Whatever. Just go."

Dustin didn't need to be told twice. He didn't know which way would get him out of the woods, so he had no choice but to start walking and see where he ended up. All he could tell was that they were near a highway, but as he continued to walk, the sound of the traveling vehicles seemed to fade more and more. He let out a frustrated sigh and turned around. Dustin felt like he had been walking in a giant circle. And for how long? He had no idea.

After what felt like an hour, Dustin just about gave up, leaning his back up against a tree. He didn't where the girls were, nor did he know what they were up to. They could have run into a monster. That wouldn't be surprisingly. Having a child of the Big Three would make it difficult to avoid having many encounters with monsters.

"Are you lost?"

The voice came so suddenly it startled Dustin, and he pulled out his sword. When he looked around he saw no one.

"You may put the weapon away. I mean no harm to you, son of Ares."

A woman stepped out from behind a tree. Her hand touched a part of the tree and it seemed to become more... alive. Dustin even noticed a few flowers on the ground around where she stood. The woman had dark hair and golden brown eyes. She wasn't dressed as anyone of importance, only wearing a pair of dirt covered jeans and a blouse.

Either way, Dustin knew this wasn't just an average lady. She had known he was a demigod, and she had seen Warfare. She wasn't mortal.

After putting Warfare away, he took a longer time to look at her. He had never been taught about the appearances of the gods, but Jacob had told him basic things about them should he run into any of them while on a quest. Flowers. Nature. Who was she?

"Persephone," he finally said breaking the silence. "Goddess of nature, wife of Hades."

The goddess nodded. "Very good. I see you are on a quest."

Dustin nodded, a bit flustered. This was the first time he had ever met a god or goddess. "Yes." He paused again. "Lady Persephone-"

"Just Persephone will do." She smiled. "Or you can call me Aunt Persephone."

That's right. Ares and Persephone were both children of Zeus, and that technically made them brother and sister, which technically made Persephone his aunt. Not that that ever meant anything to the Greeks.

"I think I'll just stick with Persephone."

"Very well."

"Right. Persephone, you wouldn't happen to know where we are right now?"

"I was just in the city not to long ago," the goddess began. "You are just north east of Cincinnati, Ohio. It will be about a twenty minute walk to to city."

"Thank you." Dustin wasn't sure how one would end a conversation with a goddess, so he began to turn away from her.

"A word of warning, Son of Ares." Persephone's voice was stern and cautious, but it earned back Dustin's attention. "Think of your prophecy. Your camp is in danger."

"In danger? In danger from what?"

Persephone's form began to shimmer and fade. "You'll find out soon enough."

Then she was gone.

Great.

But he was still lost. She could have at least told him how to get back to Devin and Laney.

He looked down, seeing a trail of multiple colored flower leading into the trees. He took his chances and followed it.

oooooooooo

Back in the small clearing, Laney was still keeping watching as Devin continued to rest. Laney was glad her godly parent was Nike instead of Hades. She couldn't stand the thought of a mission being hauled because of her.

She sat there, her own sword, Gennaiótita - Bravery - was placed upon her lap.

Laney disliked moments like this, moments that allowed her to reflect on her life before she had been taken to Camp Half-Blood by her father. He had known that she was a demigod her entire life, and he kept her living with him in their large house in Seattle until she was twelve. Now she was approaching her seventeen birthday. She had been at Camp Half-Blood for five years.

Laney was snapped out of her train of thought by the sound of a twig snapping.

She looked in the direction the sound had come from. "Dustin?" She guessed. "Is that you?"

It wasn't.

Out from the trees came a large hellhound. Laney readied her weapon and prepared herself to fight the monster herself.

The hellhound, however, didn't have the same idea in mind. It trotted over to Devin and lay down like a watch dog.

Devin fell over from leaning up against the tree and instead fell against the hellhound's black fur. That woke her up. Not expecting the creature to be in front of her startled her, but then she got a better look at the creature after she rubbed her eyes. The hellhound almost seemed to be smiling at her.

"Mrs. O'Leary?"

The monster was just like a gigantic dog and wagged it's tail from the recognition. For once, the apathetic demigod showed the faintest hint of a smile as she pet the creature on her head.

"Wow... What is that?" By then Dustin had made it back to them and was in awe at the sight of the oversized dog. "Are all hellhounds this friendly?"

Devin shook her head as yawned. "Just Mrs. O'Leary. Any other hellhound would tear us to pieces."

Laney looked at Dustin, putting Bravery back in it sheath. "Did you find out where we are?"

"Twenty minutes north east of Cincinnati."

Laney looked at him. She was impressed. "How did you manage the exact distance?"

"Well... Persephone told me."

"You met a goddess?" It was Devin who spoke this time. She was now standing up, but she was still scratching Mrs. O'Leary's head. "What did she say?"

Dustin didn't want to tell them everything. He didn't them to worry about the camp. "Just where we were."

Devin went back to giving her attention to the hellhound. "Can you give us a ride into the city?"

Dustin and Laney watched as the two seemed to have some secret form of communication. Must be something between monsters from the underworld and children of Hades.

Devin climbed on. "Mrs. O'Leary can take us into the city, but after that we'll have to find our own means of transportation. I'm not ready to shadow travel anytime soon."

Laney and Dustin climbed on behind her. The hellhound ran through the trees and to the city.

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AN: Two chapters in one day! I hope you guys liked this one better than the last.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: So I hurt my leg...Wonderful. At least it is giving me some more time to write since I can't do much else.

I finally found the book for Warm Bodies! I have been looking for it for a year! Finally!

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Chapter Seven: Sneak a Peek

Mrs. O'Leary ran threw the woods. Occasionally tree branches would hit them, slapping against their skin and leaving scratches. What would have been a twenty minute walk was almost a ten minute ride. The hellhound stopped a few yards from the outline of the city, and the three demigods climbed off.

Devin scratched the top of Mrs. O'Leary's head again. "Go back to camp, okay?"

Mrs. O'Leary whimpered at first, but she obeyed.

Dustin's stomach growled. It was just past noon, so it had been hours since he had eaten breakfast at camp, especially since it had been light. "Can we stop and get something to eat?"

"Fine. Might as well get some fuel," Laney said as they entered Cincinnati.

"I don't suppose either of you have been here before," Devin said.

"Once," Dustin answered. "But that was years ago. I should have some family here, but I don't know if they're still here or somewhere else." He looked at the daughter of Hades. "How long has it been since you were outside the camp?"

"Two days ago," she answered blankly. It was true because she had just been at Camp Jupiter visiting her family there.

Dustin sighed. "I mean either camp. Or the yearly trip to Olympus."

"Oh..." Devin paused. It had been so long. "Almost seven years."

Dustin looked at her in shock. "Really? That long?" He stopped walking. "Why?"

She walked past him. "My life story isn't important. Now come on before Miss Victory gets mad."

"We're just going to get food."

"Either way, hurry up."

Laney waited for them to catch up. She stood outside of a fast food restaurant. She had made sure they had mortal money with them for the quest, but they still had little money. They had to stick to some place cheap.

Devin looked up at the sign. "My brother tried to use some food from here to summon his sister."

Note to self: McDonalds does not work in summoning the dead.

"Do I even want to know?" Dustin asked as they entered the restaurant.

"Probably not."

The store wasn't busy. They must be in the less busy part of town. Except for them, there was two other groups in the place, and those consisted of two, three tops. Each ordered and they picked a table.

The whole time, Dustin kept thinking about what Persephone had told him. She had said that Camp Half-Blood was in danger.

Laney noticed his tension. "Something is wrong," she said, staring at him.

"What's wrong?" Dustin asked her.

Devin wasn't paying attention to them. She was staring out the window.

"I'm talking about you," Laney told him. "Just because I am a fighter doesn't mean I can't be observant. I know when someone has something on their mind." She leaned back in her chair, yet her hands remained against the table. "So what's wrong?"

Dustin sighed. There was no way he could avoid it. Deep down, the sob of Ares knew he would have to tell them eventually about what the goddess had told him back in the woods. "I lied. Persephone told me something about the camp."

Laney straightened up, leaning in closer to keep their conversation quieter.

Not surprisingly, Devin became interested in the conversation. "What did she say?"

"She told me the camp was in danger-"

"But she didn't tell you why."

"Yeah..." Dustin sounded hopeless.

"We'll send an Iris message to camp tonight," Laney began. "We'll give them an update of where we are."

The other two nodded in agreement.

"Any idea why it's in danger though?" Dustin asked.

A silence ran over the table.

Dustin decided to add in another part of what Persephone had told him. "She also told me to think of the prophecy."

Another silence. He felt like they were getting no where.

"The dead wage war on the living..."

"What?"

Devin sighed. "It's just a suggestion. It's all that comes to mind at the moment. The part of the prophecy that is really bugging me now..."

"Is what?"

"The part about the doors... The Doors of Death. If they are opened again..." She looked down at the table, suddenly not having much of an appetite. "Closing them would be risky."

"Couldn't we just close them?" He wondered what could be so hard about closing a set of doors.

Devin shook her head. "There are two sides to the doors. One is in Greece. That's the side that is here in the mortal world."

Dustin took a sip of his soda. "I'm guessing the other end is in the underworld."

Devin nodded solemnly. "Tartarus. The darkest part of the underworld. The most dangerous. That is where monsters go to when they are killed."

Laney looked at Dustin. "Those hellhounds we ran into on our way back to camp when we found you ended up there."

"Alright." He looked back to the daughter of Hades. "Wouldn't it be easy for you to be in Tartarus? Being a child of Hades and all?"

Devin didn't answer at first. She wished it was that easy. "No," she finally said. "It's just as dangerous for a child of Hades as it would be for any other demigod getting dragged in."

"Has that ever happened?"

"Twice." Devin sat back in her chair, her hands resting in her lap. "Once to my brother and another time to Jacob and Mackenzie's parents."

"But they lived," Dustin pointed out.

"Barely."

"We should get moving," Laney said. "I want us to be on the other side of the city by sundown. Then we'll stop somewhere for the night."

"I would appreciate it if you didn't try to take control. This is my quest after all," Devin told her.

"Then you shouldn't have had me come along."

Dustin was sensing the oncoming argument. "Ladies, ladies. You're both pretty. Now let's go."

oooooooooo

The three of them had made it a pretty good distance by sunset. They made it through down town and into a more suburban area. Now they had to find a place to stay overnight. They found a small inn that was originally someone's house. The outside was like the inside of a green house. Exotic plants were everywhere. Throughout the yard were stone statues. The place didn't have the most welcoming feeling about it, but at this point in the day, the three of them needed their rest. They walked up to the door and knocked.

A small old woman answered the door. She wore dark clothing and a matching piece of fabric was wrapped around the top of her hair wear her hair should be. Even though it was nighttime, she wore sunglasses so black they couldn't see through it.

The woman looked at them. "How lovely. Visitors." Faintly, she showed the three a smile. "Come in, come in."

"How much do you charge for a night?" Laney asked the woman as they walked in. The inside wasn't much more calming than the outside.

"Oh, you need not worry about that, children," the woman said. "Free of charge."

The elderly woman showed them to their room. It was a large room, fitting two full sized bed and a couch (which was actually a futon). She told them to come to her if they needed anything.

'Unsafe.'

Devin groaned.

'Leave.'

"Go away."

'Monster.'

"Shut up."

"Everything okay?" Dustin asked from where he lay on the futon. The electric clock on the night stand said it was nearly two in the morning. "Can't sleep?"

Devin rubbed her eyes, letting out another irritated groan. "This is why the doctors said I was an insomniac... How I didn't go to the underworld because of sleep deprivation I have no idea," she mumbled.

"The dead are talking to you aren't they?"

She sighed. "Unfortunately."

"What are they saying?" Dustin sat up.

"They want us to leave." Devin sat up, too. She rubbed her temples the way she would whenever she got a headache. "They say it is unsafe, and there is a monster."

Dustin wished that demigods could sense who or what was a monster. That would make his life so much easier. "I didn't notice one when we got here."

"Neither did I, but it's not like monsters are ever going to openly show us who they are." She looked down. "Some of us find that out the hard way."

If he wasn't mistaken, Dustin swore he could hear genuine emotion in her voice. He didn't know why she chose to be so apathetic, but even the smallest amount of feeling coming from the daughter of Hades made it seem like the underworld was freezing over.

Meanwhile, Devin remained deep in thought, the voices in her head never ceasing. There was a monster here. She tried to think. The atmosphere around this house made her feel more on edge than she had when they had first left the camp. That woman made the feeling worse. Devin didn't like the feel from her. The woman didn't show her eyes, and her hair was also covered. If she listened closely, Devin could hear the faint sound of hissing.

She shot out of bed, cursing in Ancient Greek. She threw a pillow at Laney, waking the daughter of Nike from her slumber. "We need to go. Now."

Despite what people may think, Laney was a heavy sleeper when she got the chance. The pillow made contact with her and she bolted up right. "What? What it it?" She asked quickly. Laney rubbed her eyes, yawning.

"We need to go," Devin said blankly. She grabbed their bags. She didn't have to change because she had slept in the same clothes she had worn before.

"Why?" Laney still sounded half asleep.

"The dead are telling me that we need to." She tossed both Laney and Dustin their bags.

They wanted to get out of the inn before the old woman caught them, but she was in the same spot she had been in when they first got there. She sat in a cozy looking hair in her living room. Like everything else, the room was littered with stone statues and plants that climbed up the walls. The statues were not the typical statues that one would find in a garden. They were not the pink flamingos and happy little garden gnomes. These statues seemed too realistic. Instead of happiness, the expression plastered upon their faces was one of pure terror.

"Leaving so soon?" The old woman asked. She didn't even look at them.

The demigods tensed.

Laney answered. "Yes, ma'am. We got our rest. We'll be on our way now."

The three of them turned toward the door, but the woman was in front of them, standing in between them and their freedom.

"Oh, but you must stay longer," the woman pestered. "At least have a meal before you go on your way. I insist."

Devin slowly shook her head.

"Than you, but we really need to go," Dustin told her.

The woman was very persistent. She had no intention of letting the three go anytime soon.

The hissing noise seemed to get louder.

"Please," she said. "I hardly ever have visitors."

'This may be our only way of getting out of here,' Laney thought before she sighed. "Alright. Just to eat."

Devin gave Laney a warning look. The woman ushered them into her kitchen. Dustin looked at a statue that she had placed in there. The eyes seemed to follow him, making him uncomfortable.

"You collect these?" He asked, making small talk with her. He believed that Laney could think of a plan in their short time.

"Every now and then, when I do receive a visitor, I like to remember them. No one pays much attention to such a small inn." The woman sighed.

Devin stayed in the doorway of the kitchen, still plenty close enough to the darkness of the hallway. An ominous silence had fallen over them, and she didn't like it.

"How do you get them to look so... realistic?" Dustin tried to sound interested in the woman's collection.

"I have my own special method." The woman smirked.

"What's that noise?" Laney asked. "It sounds like slithering..."

Devin wanted to knock her into next week and straight to Olympus.

The woman momentarily tensed, but then she eased up. "Oh dear. It seems my babies don't know how to keep quiet."

"Come again?"

Devin straightened, her arms folding over her chest. "Medusa. The gorgon that was cursed by Athena after she snuck into one of Athena's temples with Poseidon."

The old woman narrowed her eyes. Her once calm and generous demeanor was now gone. "You know my story well, child of Hades. However, I am afraid this is where your little journey ends."

Medusa reached behind her, pulling the black fabric from around her head. Dustin and Laney immediately shut their eyes. Devin blended into the shadows, hiding amongst them. Shadows couldn't be turned to stone.

The gorgon pulled the glasses from her eyes. "You will open your eyes sooner or later, demigods. It is such a temptation. Very little has resisted."

"Don't look," Laney told Dustin. Her eyes were shut tight and her head was down.

"Being turned into stone isn't on my agenda," Dustin replied. His hand remained on the hilt of Warfare. He refused to let go of it now.

From the living room, they could hear the sound of something fragile breaking, and that was quickly learned to be one of the stone statues that Medusa kept. The gorgon didn't take that very well. She stormed her way to the room.

Devin appeared behind Dustin and Laney. "One of you needs to decapitate her."

"Can't you use a...not to vivid term?" Laney asked with a bit of sarcasm.

"No. That isn't important." Devin's hands were in her pocket. "Just do it."

"Where are you?" Medusa called angrily from the living room.

Her back was to them.

Laney always came on quests armed with at least two weapons. She reached into her bag and pulled out a bow and arrow. Her bag was convenient. It was designed so she could put whatever she wanted in there, and how much, and still have it be easy retrieving whatever it is she wanted. She aimed and shot. The arrow hit Medusa in the shoulder. Before the gorgon turn around, Laney shot Dustin a look, giving him a clear message. "You. Do it."

Dustin ducked away at the last moment. Devin retreated back into the shadows. Laney shut her eyes to avoid eye contact with the gorgon.

Medusa pulled the arrow from her shoulder. "That will not be enough to defeat me, daughter of Nike."

Dustin had managed to get into the hallway and walked down it quickly. He pulled out Warfare, looking at the clean blade. He had been waiting for his chance to use his sword, and now the time had come. He ran up behind Medusa and swung his sword.

"That is so gross," Laney commented after she opened her eyes, seeing the monsters head ad headless body on the ground. It began to dissolve into dust.

Devin came out from the shadows. "Nice job."

"Thanks." Dustin grabbed a wash cloth by the sink and wiped off the blade of his sword.

"We need to get out of here," Laney told them as she put her bow back into her bottomless bag.

"I can shadow travel us... I think a few miles."

"It's something..."

Devin held out her hands to them, and advised them not to let go for the second time as they left with their second round of shadow travel.

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AN: I think this has been my favorite chapter to write so far. :3

Medusa has been gone far too long don't you think? Plus I think it was about time for them to run into a monster.


	8. Chapter 8

AN: Is it bad that I have already started planning a sequel for this story? I want I plan it out ahead of time so that I can make sure it is better than this one. Better prophecy and everything. I also need to come up with the new Great Prophecy. I want to reveal it in the next installment in this series. If you guys have any suggestions for that I will be eternally grateful to you!

Feels warning just saying.

I'm happy! I got the end credits song from Freddy vs Jason on my phone! :D

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Chapter Eight: Death's Assistance

They landed in another patch of woods. Devin didn't go far enough to drain her energy completely this time, but the shadow traveling tired her out. After settling down, try decided to make a fire to give them some light, and Dustin went to retrieve the fire wood.

"Do you think this will be enough?" He asked as he dumped the pile of sticks in the center of the three of them. Laney nodded and handed him a match.

The light of the fire and crackling put Laney to sleep.

Dustin looked up at the stars in the sky. He found the constellations that he had found several times before when he would live with his grandfather. Dustin missed Dallas. He really did. He missed the friends he had back in the city though most of them were normally in and out of juvenile hall. Dustin wondered if he would ever get the chance to revisit his old life before Camp Half-Blood.

Devin sat a few feet away from him; her dark eyes staring at the fire. She hugged her knees to her chest and placed her chin upon her knees.

"Hey," he said quietly. The daughter of Hades looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "Back in Cincinnati, you said something about monsters... What did you mean?"

She looked back at the fire. "What are you talking about?"

"You said monsters don't make it obvious that they are there," he said. "And that some people find out the hard way."

Devin didn't say anything, but Dustin could see her eyes. The expression in them made him regret his question .

"I messed up," Devin told him. "I was naïve and childish. What happened seven years ago... The reason my sister and I came to Camp Half-Blood... It's all because of me."

"I'm sure that it's n-"

"It is..." She sighed. "Ever since I was born... The dead have been drawn to me. Being from Boston made that hard..."

"The place of the Boston Massacre?"

She nodded. "At first, my mother thought I was just like any other small child. Normally young children are more opened to the other worlds because they know less... But it never stopped. Babysitters told my mom they were worried about me, and she started taking me to special doctors."

"You mean like therapists?" Dustin asked. He turned to face her.

"Sadly. The ghosts would be my only friends, and I would gladly tell them about them..."

- - Flashback - -

"So what are your friends telling you?" The doctor asked. He sat in a chair across from a five year old Devin.

"My old friends don't hang around much anymore..." She told him with a pout. "I think my brother scared them off."

The doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "I wasn't aware you had another sibling." The doctors knew that her mother had recently remarried and her new husband had a daughter of his own.

Every month, Devin had been subjected to therapy sessions. The doctors thought she looked more relaxed than she had been the session before it.

The young Devin shook her head. "Brother says he died before I was born."

He wrote something down on his paper.

"What are you writing?" She finally asked him.

"Just some notes," the doctor answered blankly, not looking at her.

Devin didn't like him. At least all the psychiatrists that she had seen before attempted to make conversation with her. This one, however, got straight to the point.

"Do you mind telling me his name?" He asked once he finished writing the notes down.

Hesitantly, the little girl looked to her right, as if to get authority from something the doctor could not see. Then she looked back at him.

"Nico."

"Your mom didn't that you were a demigod?" Dustin guessed.

"I honestly have no idea." The whole time, Devin did not move once. She remained with her knees to her chest, her dark eyes staring at the fire. "She never exactly told me my dad was Hades. I only met him once."

"You rarely left to go to Olympus either?"

She nodded. "I was too afraid that something would happen. Too afraid that during the short time we would spend in New York we would run into a monster all because I would attract them."

He wasn't a child of one of the Big Three, but Dustin understood where she was coming from. He couldn't imagine it - having to live his life in fear because he was so powerful, attracting monsters and putting tiers in danger, being scared of what he could do... Dustin doubted even Devin knew what she was capable of. She told him how her mother had old her she wasn't normal. Her mother, Catherine, had only told her to try to ignore her powers and that they would go away soon, but they never did. They only got worse.

"I would have nightmares..." She told him. "I would wake up with cracks in my walls, ceilings, and windows. Sometimes, I would find a skeleton."

"Just lying there?"

"Yes."

A silence fell between the two demigods. Dustin sighed. He could tell the daughter of Hades was not comfortable with the subject, but it had been bothering him for a while.

"What happened?" He asked after a long time. "What happened when you got to camp?"

Her expression changed, and he could see a mix of sadness and regret in her eyes.

"Never mind," he said. "You don't ha-"

"I let a monster into my house. I didn't know and..." She paused. "My mom told me to take Kylie and run. I was about to turn nine and she was five."

"You both went through a traumatic experience so young..." Dustin felt sad for the sisters.

"Thankfully," Devin continued on. "Kylie was asleep when our parents were killed. She missed everything. The monster, the skeletons coming from the ground and killing the monster." She sighed in relief. "After that, I shadowed traveled for the first time. My brother told me to think of a place called Camp Half-Blood. I passed out after we got there, but Kylie was awake and the poor thing had no idea what was going on."

"At least they took you two in right away," Dustin pointed out. "What did everyone do when you rest got there?"

Devin was glad to get to the more pleasant part of the story. "When I came to, I knew who everyone was before they even introduced themselves. My brother had destined them all to me in detail. The only ones I didn't know were Jacob and Mackenzie. They were arriving at camp for that summer, so their parents were there, too. I think thy thought I was weird when they first met me and I looked at them calmly and said 'Hi, Percy! Hi, Annabeth!'"

"Yeah. That would freak me out, too."

"Kylie had been settling in with other campers. Percy and Annabeth showed her around. Chiron took the time to ask me how I had gotten to the camp. When I told him that I had somehow shadow traveled there he asked me more questions along that subject. It didn't take him long to figure out that I was a daughter of Hades." Devin finally adjusted her position to lean against the tree she was sitting by. "He contacted Hazel soon after that. She had been wanting to know if any children of Hades showed up at the camp. I guess I wanted to know the same about Camp Jupiter because she'll contact me saying if any of Pluto's kids show up."

"I'm sorry," Dustin said once she finished her story. "I shouldn't have bothered you."

"It's fine. It actually feels good to get that off my chest." She paused, yawning.

Dustin sighed. "When was the last time you got sleep?

"Uh... Probably twenty four hours ago... Maybe more."

Dustin remembered nights when he would stay up late. Once he hit nearly twenty hours he would pass out from exhaustion. "How are you still alive? This isn't Nightmare on Elm Street you know."

"What's that?"

"Never mind." He sighed. "Come here. You can use me as a pillow."

"I don't-"

"Now."

Devin narrowed her eyes a bit at him, but she moved over to him, laying her head on his shoulder.

"Out of curiosity," Dustin added on. "What are you going to do once you see your brother?"

Devin thought about it for a while, but then she answered with, "Probably punch him in the face for having people think I am crazy." She yawned again.

"Go to sleep."

"Fine." She closed her eyes. "Goodnight, war head."

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AN: Another short chapter and not my favorite. This would be another chapter that I don't care much for, but I did want to get Devin's past out for you guys.

The next chapter will be better. I swear on the River Styx that it will be!


	9. Chapter 9

AN: I started thinking for this chapter as I was typing the previous one. That is kind of why I left off where it did, and I was going to make it longer, but I wanted that to be in this chapter instead. Guess whose not getting much sleep tonight!

I promised myself I wasn't going to hint towards any couples until the second fanfic... Yeah. That isn't going to happen now.

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Chapter Nine: Setting Limits

There were two things that Devin did when she had nightmares. One was accidentally summon the undead, and the other was cling to whatever was near her. Usually she would cling to her covers or a pillow, but since she hadn't taken either of those with her on the quest the closest thing for her to cling to was Dustin.

The son of Ares had been keeping watch over the other two demigods, but he occasionally dosed off and took short five, ten minute naps. He felt his face heat up a bit when he saw that the girl was holding him, but he didn't have the heart to move her over. Dustin eventually, slowly so he didn't wake her, moved so that he was laying down. He used his bag as a pillow for himself. Better that than the hard ground to rest his head on.

Eventually, the son of Ares fell asleep for real. His own dream began at Camp Half-Blood, and everything looked as calm as it had the last time he had seen the camp a few days previous. Then it changed into something different. Dustin could hardly see what was happening to his fellow camp mates. Each one was dropping like flies. He then realized that their attackers were not living beings, but they were dead. Ghosts to be exact.

What had Persephone told him? Think of the prophecy and he would learn of the danger the camp was in soon enough. He thought back on the prophecy. The dead wage war on the living. Camp Half-Blood was in danger, and the dead was after it.

He was woken up by the sound of squealing, and he sat bolt up right. Devin was woken up, too, from the sudden movement.

Dustin noticed that Laney wasn't there, but instead there was a woman there. He had to admit that this woman was one of the most beautiful people he had ever bet in his life. Her long blond hair fell loosely and her light blue eyes stared at the two.

The woman frowned slightly. "Why did you have to move? I thought you two looked adorable."

The comment made Dustin's face turn a shade of pink. If Devin felt embarrassed by the blond woman's statement, she definitely didn't show it.

The daughter of Hades sighed, giving Dustin an apologetic look. "You'll have to figure her. She has a thing for playing match maker. Dustin, meet Aphrodite, goddess of love."

"Kylie's mom?"

"Yep!" The goddess smiled. He had no idea why she would suddenly show up to them in the middle of the woods. Then again, Persephone had done the same. She looked at Devin. "So how is my step-daughter doing?"

Devin sighed. Aphrodite treated her like she was one of her own children. She was a very teasing woman, especially when it came to the relationships of demigods. The goddess of love found it quite entertaining. "I'm fine."

"Fine?" The goddess asked.

"Yes. Fine." Devin stood up, dusting herself off. "Not that I am not happy to see you, Aphrodite-"

"You can just call me mom," Aphrodite said in a teasing matter. "You are an honorary daughter of mine after all." She smiled.

Devin shook her head. "I don't think that will ever stick."

"Persephone wanted me to call her aunt when I met her," Dustin added in. He stood up.

The goddess of love smiled at the demigod. "Oh yes. You're the son of my lover. I can certainly see the family resemblance." She lightly stroked his cheek.

Devin stood in between them. "Alright. That's enough."

"Oh~ jealous?"

Devin blushed. "What? No." She sighed. "We have more important matters to discuss. Why are you here, Aphrodite? I know enough to know that a god wouldn't just appear to someone just to check up on them."

The goddess sighed. "Alright. You got me." She looked at the demigods. "Your quest has been limited. You only have four days to get to the Underworld, find your brother and make it back to Camp Half-Blood."

"Or what?"

Dustin tensed up. He was hoping that the dream he had was not true, but sadly, when you are a demigod, that certainly isn't the case. "The dead will attack them."

Devin looked at the son of Ares. "Why would that happen?"

Aphrodite shrugged. "I am simply a messenger. I am not the one who can communicate with the dead."

Dustin sighed. "I had a dream about it. There was an army of them. I couldn't see exactly how many but it looked to be near a hundred."

"I can't control that many. I don't know how." Devin spoke the words quietly. Since she had arrived at camp, she had never seen herself in the outside world - the world away from Rome and Olympus - so she never bothered to heighten her powers. Aside from shadow traveling, the daughter of Hades knew nothing. "I won't be able to help them."

"Not yet," Aphrodite told her. "You will learn."

Devin looked at the goddess. "How can you be so sure? You cannot see my future."

"Even though you are not one of my children," Aphrodite told the daughter of Hades, sincerity full in her voice. "I still consider you to be one of mine. While my children may not be the best fighters, and many of them are not fighters, I still have faith in them. Just as I has faith in you."

Dustin watched the goddess and demigod as their conversation went on. Aphrodite may not have been Devin's actual mother, but it was obvious that the goddess of love cared greatly for her. He couldn't help but feel jealous. His mother was always traveling fighting in cage matches. Dustin doubted she even knew that he was a demigod, that she had had an intimate relationship with the god of war, that her only child had ran into a monster at his school, been taken to a camp specifically for the mortal children of the gods, and was now traveling the country with two girls that he had barely gotten the chance to know while they traveled to the Underworld to revive the Lord of the Underworld's deceased son to save Camp Half-Blood from an army of the dead. All within four days.

Gods. His life had sure been eventful lately.

He could just imagine him telling his mom about his new life at Camp Half-Blood. She would look past all the dangers and obstacles, telling him, "You have to take the challenge. No exceptions." She was Meredith Evans, professional cage fighter. When she was younger she was sent to In School Suspension, regular suspension and even expelled numerous times for fighting until she dropped out at age seventeen. Dustin hadn't planned on following in his mother's foot steps, but he swore all those guys he got into fights with started it.

Throughout his life, Dustin had good plans, but hi short temper got in the way of that. He was amazed that he hadn't gotten into any fights since he arrived at Camp Half-Blood. Maybe it was because, for the first time, he was around others like him. Before that, the only family member he had actually liked was his grandfather, but then he had died of a heart attack, and Dustin had been stuck living with his deranged family in Dallas. Till this day, the son of Ares still hated them with a passion.

A hand waving in front of his face pulled him out of his train of thought.

"War head," Devin said. "Are you in there? Did my father claim your soul early or," she paused looking where he was, "are you fascinated by that tree?"

"It is a lovely tree," Dustin jokingly replied. "Should we go find Laney?"

Devin nodded. "If the quest wasn't time sensitive I would just say no and wait for her to come back." She sighed. "Up for a round of shadow traveling?"

Almost reluctantly, Dustin nodded. Like everyone else (besides Devin of course), he wasn't too fond of the cold darkness of shadow traveling.

Devin shadow traveled them to where Laney was in a nearby small town. The daughter of Nike narrowed her eyes at the other two demigods.

"What took you two so long?" She asked with a scolding tone of voice. "Or were the two of you too busy sleeping together?"

The shade of pink came back to Dustin's face.

"It wasn't like that, Laney, and you know it," Devin told her.

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes.

"For your information we were speaking with Aphrodite."

Laney blinked and then groaned. Aphrodite wasn't her favorite goddess. She had gone to Olympus on the winter solstice and the goddess of love decided that the victory obsessed demigod needed some love in her life. It really got on Laney's nerves. "I'm glad I wasn't there," she mumbled before she turned her attention back to them. "Two goddesses within two days. That's a rare thing to happen on quests. Since I began scouting for potential half-bloods I have only came into contact with about five, and I have been doing that for four years."

Devin nodded, agreeing on the fact that meeting a handful of the gods on quests was rare. The rest of what Laney said, however, was unimportant to her and seemed like nothing more than a humming noise in the back of her mind.

"What did she say to you?"

"She told what the camp is in danger from." Devin said blankly. "It cleared up a line in the prophecy for us. 'The dead wage war on the living.' Camp Half-Blood is in danger of being attacked by the dead."

Dustin added on to what she had said. "We only have four days to finish the quest."

At the time limitation, Laney's eyes widened. "We need to hurry."

Dustin looked at Devin. "Care to shadow travel far this time?"

Seeing no other choice, the daughter of Hades nodded. "Alright. Just be there to catch me when I pass out."

Three hundred miles. That was her limit. At least, that was her limit when carrying two other people with her. Devin didn't have too much time to be proud of herself because as soon as they landed she collapsed, but Dustin caught her before she could hit the ground.

The son of Ares and daughter of Nike looked at their surroundings. They were under a walk way. The tunnels led to two hotels, one which was connected to a small shopping center. Dustin smiled as he recognized the area. Dallas.

He positioned himself so that he could carry Devin on his back as she slept. She was so light.

Laney adjusted her bag over her shoulders. She was frowning a bit. She had only been to the city once, and that was she, Tyler and Penelope had came to recruit Dustin to Camp Half-Blood. "How do we get out of here."

"We can take a taxi," he suggested.

"They have those here, too?"

"Yes. In most big cities. Where are you from?"

"Seattle."

Dustin sighed. "Anyway, yeah. There's also a train that travels through down town. I'm not sure how long that will take because it will have to stop to pick up more people, and the taxi can take is out of town, but it should cost a lot of money. We can agree that we don't have much."

Laney went through her wallet, counting how much they had. Thirty dollars. "I guess we're taking the train.

Dustin nodded, walking towards the nearest waiting station with Laney right behind. Once they got on they say near the back. He sat Devin down before he sat down.

"Huh?" Devin woke up. "Where are we?"

"On a train," Laney said. "In Dallas."

"Oh okay..." Devin leaned her back up against the window and dozed off again. She was too tired to care about the odd looks that they were getting from the other passengers.

Laney, for the mean time, went through her bottomless bag. Eventually she found a gold drachma. She spoke quietly. "When we get off, we contact camp and give them an update. They'll want to know.

Dustin nodded. "Okay."

They got out at the edge of downtown. The next thing they did was look for a secluded area to make the Iris message to camp. They found a park with a fountain that wasn't crowded. In fact it was actually very quiet. Almost too quiet. The sun was hitting the fountain at just the right angle to create a rainbow. Laney tossed the drachma and said, "O, goddess, accept my offering." An image began to shimmer in the water. "Chiron, Camp Half-Blood."

The image of the centaur appeared before them. He was teaching some newer campers archery, but when Laney called his name to get his attention, he miss fired and nearly impaled one of the campers. He quickly apologized and told them that the class would be postponed until later. The centaur put up his bows and turned towards the image of the demigods.

"Is this a bad time?" Laney asked.

"No. Not at all." He smiled slightly happy to hear from his pupils. "I take it the quest has gone well so far?"

Dustin gave him an unsure look. Devin rubbed her eyes, having just woken up.

"Yeah. Give or take," Dustin finally said.

"We ran into Persephone and Aphrodite," Devin told him, still half asleep.

Dustin continued on since he was the only one who had talked to both of the goddesses. "In four days, Camp Half-Blood will be attacked by the dead."

Chiron stared at them for a while. "Elena hasn't told us about this."

"She must not have seen it yet," Laney started. "Elena doesn't see everything you know."

Chiron sighed. "That is true."

Devin sat up on the edge of the fountain. "How's my sister?"

Devin was a distant person. Dustin knew this, but after hearing her story he knew that she cared deeply for her sister even though they were not blood related.

Chiron replied to the daughter of Hades shortly. "Kylie is fine. We have had a few more campers. She is actually showing the newest camper around the camp now."

"I guess we will meet them when we get back," Dustin said.

Chiron nodded. "I must go now. I will let your siblings know you are well."

"Thanks, Chiron," Laney said to the centaur as his image faded away. The she looked at the other two. "We need to get moving."

"I just thought of something." Dustin said as he stood up. "My family here has a joint savings account. I can go to an ATM and get some money. We can take a bus or something."

Devin sighed in relief. "Thank the gods. I am so not ready for another round of shadow travel. We travel by land until the New Mexico - Arizona border, and the I can shadow travel us."

"Sounds like a plan." Dustin started to walk away to find an ATM machine. "Meet me at the bus station."

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AN: This chapter took a bit longer than I had hoped. I must say I deeply enjoyed writing the scene with Aphrodite.

I just thought of an idea for the next installment in the series. Hint? Uncle Rick's next series is involving Norse Mythology. Guess whose showing up in the next fanfic~


	10. Chapter 10

AN: Hello world and welcome to a new chapter! You know guys, I am wanting to rename this fanfic. The name has never been interesting to me, so by the time I finish this chapter, the name will most likely he different. Of course to those of you who are following this story will get the chapter regardless. I'm not changing the summary at least.

As far as that goes, I don't have any notes at this point regarding the future of this story. I contemplated changing it several times, but I found ways to make my ideas works. Along with feels. Yes. There will be feels.

I feel like we need an update on what is going on at camp, don't you agree? Expect a long chapter.

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Chapter Ten: Flaws of Fatalities

As Chiron had told them, Kylie was leading the newest camper around Camp Half-Blood. She normally wasn't the one who led newcomers around on the grand tour. It was normally what Devin did. However, Kylie decided to take the opportunity.

The new camper was a boy about her age. He had dark brown hair (so dark it could easily be mistaken for black), and his eyes couldn't decide if they wanted to be blue or green.

"So where are you from?" The boy asked her as they walked towards the cabins.

"Boston. My sister and I have been here for a long time." The daughter of Aphrodite sighed.

"Is she here? Whose her parent?"

"No. Sadly she isn't here, Marcus. And her dad is Hades."

The boy, Marcus blinked. "Like the blue guy with the blue fire for hair?"

Kylie giggled a bit. "Yes and no. You have the right idea, but he doesn't look like that."

"You said you two were sisters, so does that mean he is your dad, too?" He asked, noting her appearance. "You don't look like someone who would be his kid. I honestly picture them wearing dark clothing."

"You're right about that actually. Hades isn't my dad," she told him. "My dad was a mortal. My mom is Aphrodite."

"That makes sense." He paused. "Wait... You said was..."

Kylie looked down sadly. "Yeah. He and my step mom died before Devin and I got here. I don't know what happened... We just showed up here."

"Does your sister know?"

Kylie shrugged. "If she does she won't tell me." She shook her head as they approached the large area where the cabins were. "These are the cabins. Once your godly parent claims you, you will be in the cabin they represents them.

Marcus looked at the cabins. None of the cabins looked the same. The first two cabins looked very similar to each other though. He took a guess on whose they were. "Zeus and Hera?"

Kylie nodded. "Hera doesn't have children though. She's the goddess of marriage and loyal to her husband. Zeus doesn't have any children either. At least none that are here. His daughter is serving Artemis as one of her hunters and his Roman son is in New Rome with his family."

The daughter of Aphrodite led him in the circle of cabins. She stopped at each one to tell Marcus about the god it represented. They stopped in front of Cabin Three.

He took another guess. "Poseidon?"

"He doesn't have any children here either. His son is in New Rome with his wife. Oh! Their kids are here though. Wanna meet them?"

"Uh, sure. I guess so."

Since they were right there, Kylie checked to see if the twins were in what was formerly their father's cabin. They were, but each of the were on separate bunk beds staring down at a spot on the floor.

"Jacob... Mackenzie... What are you guys doing?" Kylie asked them.

"No sudden movements," Jacob told her.

"It can sense fear," Mackenzie added.

Kylie sighed. "Their dad is a son of Poseidon and their mother is a daughter of Athena. Athena wasn't too happy when they came along since she never approved of her daughters relationship. But they're just so cute together~" She smiled. "Children of Athena are scared of spider's and-" she gestured towards the twins. "These are are just as terrified."

The twins didn't seem to be paying them any attention.

Jacob looked at his sister. "Why don't you dump water on it?"

Mackenzie gasped. "It moved!"

Kylie led Marcus out of the Poseidon cabin and on with the tour of the cabins. They passed the cabin for Ares rusty red cabin, followed by the cabins for Apollo, Hephaestus, Dionysus and the other cabins on the side labeled with odd numbers. Then they moved onto the side with even numbers and eventually got back up to Cabin 2, Hera's cabin.

"So," Marcus began. "How long will it be before my parent claims me?"

Kylie shrugged. "I don't know.. But you should be claimed by the time you turn thirteen."

Marcus frowned. "But I'm eleven. I don't want to wait that long."

"Do you know if your godly parent is your mom or you dad?" Kylie asked the new comer. "I can probably think of who it might be."

"Well... I at least know that it is my dad. I never met him."

They got to the dining pavilion and sat down at one of the tables.

"Did you mom ever talk about him?" Kylie asked. Maybe it was the fact that her mother was the goddess of love, but she just adored hearing the love stories about the gods and the mortals that they would fall in love with.

Marcus shook his head. "She hardly did, but I did ask her about him a lot. She says I have his eyes, and his reminded her of the ocean."

"The ocean?"

Chiron galloped up to them. "I see you two finished the tour. Very well." He looked at Kylie. "Your sister Iris messaged."

"She did?" Kylie smiled. She had been worried about her.

The centaur nodded. "The quest is going smoothly, but it had been shortened greatly."

"Why?" Now Kylie was beginning to get worried.

"They ran into Persephone and your mother. They received messages from them saying that the camp will be under attack in four days."

Chiron told the child of Aphrodite about the Iris message. It only furthered the young girl's worry.

"Chiron," she said. "The ghosts... Are they Greek or Roman?"

"We don't know."

As planned, the trio met up at the nearest bus station. Dustin had arrived first. His knowledge of the city made it easy for him to navigate his way around. With no problem he found a convenience store with an ATM machine. While he was there he also picked them up some food for the road. It had taken Devin and Laney longer to get there after he did. The two girls knew nothing about Dallas and had gone in a giant circle.

"You know," Laney told him as soon as they met up. "We could have gone with you. We are on a very time sensitive mission and you just added another hour to the time we have wasted."

"Alright, mom," Dustin replied back sarcastically and held out a package of M&M's. "Want some?"

"I don't eat sweets," Laney said coldly.

"I'll take some," Devin said and Dustin tossed her a pack.

Laney groaned. "When does the bus leave?"

Dustin had already boughten them tickets and checked the times on them. "5:15."

Laney stared at him. Her eyes narrowed into a glare.

"What?"

"Dustin."

"Yeah."

"It's 5:09."

The three of them moved quickly, picking up their stuff and running for the bus terminal.

The first bus took them to Amarillo. They spent thirty minutes at that station before they left the state of Texas and passed the border into New Mexico. When they crossed over it had just turned to ten o'clock.

"Okay. We have an hour before our next bus leaves," Dustin told them. "What should we do in the mean time?"

Laney shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Perhaps we should discuss our plans further."

"We already have," Devin said. "Travel by bus until Arizona and then we shadow travel to Los Angeles."

The daughter of Nike narrowed her eyes. "I am aware of that, but what happens once we get there? Once we make it to the Underworld?"

"We're going to find my brother. Have you been paying attention at all?"

Laney sighed. "What if you don't find him? At least not right away."

"I'd prefer not to think about that." Devin shrugged.

"And not thinking is exactly the kind of mess that can get us in trouble." Laney's voice was raised slightly in a scorning matter.

Devin put her bag over her shoulder. "I would appreciate it if you stopped trying to act like my mother."

"At least I didn't kill mine."

Dustin froze. Devin had told him her story, and he was surprised that Laney knew about it. Kylie knew, but she didn't know the whole truth. He knew that had struck a cord with the daughter of Hades. It was evident in her body language and her eyes. The dark orbs that were normally apathetic filled with deep sadness. Then they quickly filled with anger. Dustin was glad no one was around them.

"I didn't. You know I didn't, and you would have known anything at all if you hadn't listened in on my conversations with Chiron," Devin said to Laney. Shadow started to appear under her.

Laney rolled her eyes as she placed her hands on her hips. "I haven't be at camp as long as you, so I didn't listen in on one of your conversations with Chiron."

"So you admit you ease dropped." Devin narrowed her eyes.

"Glad I did so I could tell the camp you were crazy, unstable."

"So that was you." Devin was now glaring daggers at the daughter of Nike.

Dustin now understood the pure hatred between the two demigods. In the real world, Devin had been subjected to visiting psychiatrists because of the powers she had being a child of the god of the dead. The dead visited her a lot, and her family had believed that she was going insane when the dead never left her alone. Once she got to Camp Half-Blood, she finally had people say she wasn't, but then Laney had come to the camp.

"Your unstable. We all can agree on that."

Dustin figured it was time to intervene. "Laney, that's enough." He put his hand on her shoulder only to have her slap it off.

"I'm not surprised that a child of the war god would defend a time bomb."

It was Dustin's turn to argue with her. "Do not bring me into this."

"You brought yourself into this."

Devin cut in. "Just give it a rest, Princess. I'm surprised your fatal flaw hasn't gotten to you yet."

"What's a fatal flaw?" Dustin asked. He didn't remember Jacob ever tell him about that when he first got to Camp Half-Blood.

"Just as it sounds," Devin told him. The change of subject made the shadows surrounding her on the ground disappear, but they did not disappear completely. "Queen Victory's fatal flaw happens to be her confidence. Being too confident has been known to bring people to their downfall."

Laney sighed, but she nodded. "Unfortunately that happens to be all too true."

Devin looked down at the ground. She didn't speak for a while, causing a silence to hang over the three of them. She willed the shadows to go away. "My fatal flaw is fear."

From what Dustin had heard, he couldn't deny that. "I'm not sure what mine is."

Laney shrugged. "Some never know what their flaw is."

"There is usually a flaw representing certain demigods," Devin said. "Holding grudges is dangerous for a child of Hades."

Laney was staring at something in the distance like she was deeply fascinated in something that dwelled within the trees, and, at that very moment, she was. The daughter of Nike had noticed something metallic amongst the leaves and branches. Though it was nighttime, the street lights had provided them with enough light. Faintly, Laney could head a bird sound, cawing to be exact. However, the sound wasn't normal.

Her eyes widened. "We need to get inside."

"What?" Dustin looked at her. "Why?"

The metallic being that was in the trees rose up, but it wasn't just one thing. There were several of them, and they circled in the sky above them.

"Styphalian birds," Laney told him. "We need to get out of the open before they rip us to shreds."

The metallic birds zeroed in for the kill, and the three demigods ran towards the entrance to the bus station, but the birds were much faster than they were. They were quickly surrounded by Styphalian birds. They were stirred apart from each other as they tried the fend off the monsters.

Dustin could see what Laney meant by the birds ripping them to shreds. He felts them peck as claw at his exposed skin and clothing. He tried to attack them, swinging Warfare around aimlessly, but that did little to nothing at all. The birds kept coming at him.

Laney had a similar attack plan in mind. However, her sword, Bravery, did nothing to the monsters either. She wasn't willing to risk using her arrow. It would take her a few seconds to pull it out, aim and shoot, but that would give the birds just enough time to leave her as a tattered corpse.

Devin regretted saying she would never need a weapon. She regretted never preparing herself. With nothing to defend herself with all she could do was block herself and swat at the monsters.

The birds by now had left them with many cuts and bruises. The metallic monsters continued to viciously attack until one of the demigods screamed, and everything went black.

The attacks stopped, but Dustin and Laney felt something grab at the and looked down to see skeletons crawling up from the ground, grabbing onto their legs. Then, as soon as it all began, it stopped and the darkness faded away, leaving them alone on the street of the small town they had stopped at. A few piles of dust lay on the ground as the remains of the killed birds.

Devin was on her knees a few yards away from them. She was looking down at the ground and a hand covered her right eye. "Gods damn birds..."

Dustin quickly went over to her. Laney followed at her own pace. "Are you okay?"

"I think they clawed out my eye." Devin was trying to sound calm, but she was in pain, and both her appearance and voice could tell that.

Laney dug through her bag and pulled out their bag of ambrosia and gave a piece to Devin. Then she pulled out a piece for herself as Dustin.

The gash the birds had left of her eye began to heal, but there were still scars the covered the upper right side of her face. Devin pulled her hand away and blinked her eyes which hurt to do. "I can't see out of my right eye. It's all blurry.

Dustin tried to sound optimistic. "Maybe it just needs time to come back?"

"Maybe." Devin stood up, using her bangs to cover her eyes and she kept looking down.

Laney led them back into the bus station. During their time arguing and with the Styphalian birds, the hour had nearly passed and passengers were boarding the bus to Phoenix, Arizona.

"When we get to Phoenix, I'll had ow travel us to Los Angeles," Devin said to Laney and Dustin once they for seated.

"You pretty much just lost an eye," Dustin protested. "Are you sure you can do that?"

Devin held her hands up defensively. "The pain is gone at least. I'll be fine."

"But-"

"Don't worry yourself."

Dustin sighed and sunk into his seat.

Laney was doing some calculations in her head. "If we get there tomorrow, that will give us two days to get back to camp."

"Think we'll get back in time?" Dustin asked.

Laney shrugged. "I hope so. I hope that we at least get back before anything bad happens."

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AN: I know. Bad place to stop, but I am drawing a blank for the chapter.

I am deciding to allow people to create OC's for this. So if you have any OC's fill this out and leave a review with it!

Name:  
Age:  
Hometown:  
Birthday:  
Are they Greek or Roman?:  
Godly Parent: (Any are open except for those who do not have children like Hera, Artemis, Minerva, Hestia)  
Weapon of Choice: (please include the weapon type and a name)  
Orientation: (I feel the need to ask this. I don't care if the character is straight, bisexual, or gay)  
Appearance:  
Personality:  
History: (I need a history for them. Tell me their life before camp, how they got there, etc.)  
Likes:  
Dislikes:

Good or Evil?:

Are you okay if he/she dies?;

Anything else: (Do they have any special powers (like Piper being able to charmspeak or Frank being able to change into animals)? Do they have anything special accessories (Annabeth's Yankees cape)?)


	11. Chapter 11

AN: This chapter forth, I am going to include different character point of views like how they are done in the Heroes of Olympus. I figure that would make it easier to portray the characters, and tell what is going on in different places like on the quest and Camp Half-Blood. I just think that'll make the story better, too. I'm also going to try to make the chapters longer and more detailed.

Oh and I forgot to mention on the OC form on the last chapter. For female OC's are they a Hunter serving Artemis? And if yes, ht made them join her?

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Chapter Eleven: The Land of the Dead

~ Kylie ~

Kylie hated the dreams. She really did. She knew that they were dreams of things that had happened a long time ago because se recognized a few of the people in them. Only the people in her dreams were much younger than they were now.

The first person she recognized was a girl who looked sixteen. She had black hair cut into a pixie hair cut colored black. She had electric blue eyes. Thalia. Kylie had met her a few times when she had come to camp for a visit. She was the daughter of Zeus, and had joined Artemis and her hunters when she was about To turn sixteen years old. Since she joined the hunt, she became immortal and didn't age at all.

Then she recognized a second person. He was a boy who looked about thirteen years old. He was of average height, and he had black hair and green eyes. Kylie could tell that the boy was a demigod because he wore an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. His camp necklace had two beads on it. He had been at the camp for two years. However, it wasn't until someone said his name that she recognized him. It was Percy, Jacob and Mackenzie's dad.

The third person she didn't recognize. Kylie had never seen the girl in her life. At least not in person. Not in pictures. This particular girl had been in every single one of her dreams for as long as she could remember. One time she was at a hotel, and Kylie easily figured out it was some kind of casino. Then another time at a boarding school with a younger boy who Kylie guessed was her brother. Another time she saw her apparition speaking to her brother in the Underworld.

This time, she was in a junkyard with Percy, Thalia and their satyr friend Grover Underwood and a Hunter by the name Zoë. From what Kylie could comprehend, they were on a quest to California to rescue Annabeth and the goddess Artemis. She saw the girl take something for her brother, a statue of Hades. Then a robotic monster came out for amongst the ruble. The girl sacrificed herself.

The only thing Kylie learned from these dreams was the girls name. Her name was Bianca di Angelo.

Eventually, Kylie decided to consult Chiron. These weird dreams had been going on long enough, and she was sure that the centaur could help her figure out what they meant. The following day she found him in the Big House returning from training some of the newer campers.

"Chiron," she asked holding her hands in front of her nervously. "I need to talk to you about something."

Chiron could tell by her body language that what was on her mind was bothering her immensely. "What is troubling you?"

Kylie sat down at the table in the room. Chiron stood across from her. The centaur sat his equipment on top of the table.

"I've been having these dreams," Kylie began looking down at the table. "They're really weird. I keep seeing things that happened a long time ago, and I mean a long, long time ago."

Chiron nodded, urging for her to continue on. Kylie proceeded to tell Chiron about the dreams. She told him about everyone that she could remember, and she gave him every single detail. Afterwards, the centaur' expression hardened and the worried her.

"This should have happened a long time ago," Chiron muttered to himself, but the daughter of Aphrodite heard him.

"A long time ago? Chiron, what are you talking about?" She stood up.

The centaur sighed. "As your dreams told you, Bianca do Angelo died years ago. She chose to be reborn." He paused, and he looked down at the young demigod.

"Are you saying..."

"I am not completely sure, but there is a chance that you're her reincarnation."

"Okay." Kylie wasn't sure what to say after that. "Thank you, Chiron."

The daughter of Aphrodite made her way back to her cabin to meet up with her siblings as they were about to leave for dinner. They had a few minutes before the horn rang, so most of the Aphrodite kids were doing their makeup and fixing their hair.

One of the older girls in the cabin noticed Kylie acting less social than usual and walked over to her and sat on the younger girl's bed. The older demigod was from a Spanish family from New Jersey. She spoke with a mix of a Jersey accent and a Spanish accent. She had short black hair and olive skin.

"How did you talk with Chiron go?" She asked Kylie. She had been the only one who had known she was going to speak with the centaur.

"I really rather not say, Catalina..." Kylie sighed.

Catalina nodded in understanding. She handed something to Kylie. "I saw this when I visited my family and thought you'd like it."

Kylie took the gift and looked at it. It was a green hat. One would think that a child of Aphrodite's favorite color would be pink, but Kylie had always loved the color green. She was especially jealous of people with green eyes. She smiled at her half-sister. "Thanks."

"No problem," Catalina said back to her.

In the distance, they could hear the horn sound. It was time for dinner.

"Lead the way," Catalina told her.

Kylie had been at the camp longer than the other demigods in the Aphrodite cabin, so that made her the leader of the cabin. Even though she had never been on a quest and some of the other campers had, they didn't feel the need to take away her leadership. They were perfectly happy with being led by her.

Kylie walked to the door. "Cabin Ten! Fall in!"

The other campers in the cabin lined up behind her, and she led them to the mess hall with her new green hat on her head.

~ Dustin ~

Dustin was feeling cramped up at that point. He, Laney and Devin had been on the bus for hours, and they were approaching Phoenix, Arizona. He usually felt cramped and irritated after a long road trip, but his family in Dallas had hardly made long trips. His ADHD made long trips almost unbearable. He wanted to run around, get in a fight, do something.

He could tell that Laney was feeling the same way. Everytime he would look at the daughter of Nike she would be sitting in a different position each time tapping her foot on the floor.

Devin was probably the least ADHD person he had met in his entire life. At least by demigod standards, She just sat on her bus seat staring out the window. She kept her bangs over her eyes, hiding her face ever since their run in with the Styphalian birds. They had left her with possibly a blind right eye.

"How's your eye?" He asked her as he tried to find a new comfortable sitting position for the remainder f the trip to Phoenix.

"I still can't see you," she told him not moving. "What do you think?"

Dustin said no more after that.

They arrived at the Phoenix bus station at about quarter to five. The bus would have arrived sooner, but it kept having technical difficulties. The driver apologized to the passengers over and over as they got off.

"Thank the gods," Laney said once they were off. "I don't think I could handle being in there much longer." She looked at Devin. "How can you sit still for so long?"

The daughter of Hades didn't say anything as she shrugged a put her bag over her shoulder. She hadn't opened it the entire quest. Dustin wondered what she had in there.

"We need to move on," she said after a while. Dustin was surprised because she was starting to sound like Laney. "Let's find a place where no one can see us, and then I will shadow travel us."

They walked outside of the station and found a empty alley way near by. It was dark in there, so it was perfect.

Devin held out her hands. "Next stop: The Underworld."

Dustin instantly knew that where they landed was not the Underworld. He always pictured the Underworld full of dead people and dark (very, very dark). This, however, was the sprawling city of Los Angeles.

"I think you got us to the wrong place," Dustin told her.

"I got us to the entrance."

Dustin looked around.

"What? Are you expecting a giant sign that says, 'The Underworld Is Here!' Are you?"

"Well... No... I don't think so."

Devin led then to a building on Valencia Boulevard. The name was in gold letters upon black marble reading DOA Recording Studio. The glass doors underneath had something on them, too. No soliciting. No loitering. No living.

"Why is the entrance to the Underworld in a recording studio?" Dustin asked Devin.

She narrowed her eyes, or eye since she could only see out one of them. "I don't know. I didn't plan it."

The lobby was packed with people, but Dustin easily could tell that they were ghosts. He could see right through their bodies. The walls and floor were matching steel, and the furniture was made of black leather.

"Do we wait in line?"

Devin groaned, walking right past the ghosts in the line and up to the desk. The name at the desk was tall with dark skin and bleached blond hair. He wore a silk Italian suit with a black rose that was pinned under his name tag. Dustin strained his eyes trying to read it.

The man didn't look at Devin when she approached. "Oh wonderful. More demigods. Wait in line." His voice sounded irritated.

Devin, for the first time during that quest, reached into her bag. She pulled out a pouch made out of black velvet and dropped in on the desk. When it fell in opened up and several gold drachmas fell out of it. "I wish to speak with my father."

Whispers could be heard from the ghosts in the room. The man didn't move.

"Take me and my companions to Hades, Charon."

The man, Charon, looked at the pouch full of drachmas. Devin never left the camp, so Dustin had no idea where she had gotten all the Greek money. Charon reached up and grabbed the pouch of precious money. "Follow me."

Charon left the desk and led them through the crowd of the dead. The spirits started gripping at them, but thy had little effect. They went into an elevator that was already crowded with ghosts.

Dustin found being able to see the dead was making him very uncomfortable. He felt sorry for Devin. This is what she saw every single day.

As the elevator descended, the atmosphere seemed even more ominous than it had originally been. Dustin looked at Charon. The man's suit had been replaced with a black robe. The hood was up and it covered his eyes. It was a little to creepy for Dustin's taste.

The elevator stopped before a boat. Charon got it, and he looked at the half-bloods. "Climb aboard."

Dustin was almost reluctant to do so.

If Dustin could describe the Underworld, he would use the words creepy, dark, cold, etc. He was so not looking forward to the day he would die and end up here.

Charon led them along the River Styx.

Dustin leaned forward. "So, why is he taking us to Hades?"

"I doubt this will happen," Devin told him. "But... I want to at least attempt to persuade my father to assist us with controlling the attack at camp."

"Okay. I've never met the guy. What's with the doubting?"

"My father generally doesn't care much for helping anyone. He was very reluctant in fighting in the Second Titan War. He's the least friendly of the gods."

"You have met Mr. D, right?" The son of Ares raised an eyebrow. "And from what I heard my dad isn't much of a people person either."

"None of the gods are," Laney cut in. She was looking down, not waiting to look amongst the Underworld. "The only time our godly parent show up in our lives is to claim us. Then they're out of the picture."

The boat was beginning to slow down. Charon told them that they would be approaching the palace of Hades soon.

It was obvious that the Hades cabin at Camp Half-Blood had been modeled after the palace f their father. Like the cabin, the palace was made of black stone like obsidian. There were a few torches which were lit with Greek fire. What stood between them and the doors was a black gate and a massive three headed dog.

"Please don't tell me we have to fight that thing," Dustin said to himself.

The dog noticed the three demigods and growled. It began to advance towards them. Dustin and Laney prepared their swords, but Devin sighed and stood in between them and the dog.

"Cerberus, sit," she said firmly to the dog. To the surprise of the other two, the dog obeyed. He lowered his heads, and Devin pet the one in the middle. "Good boy."

"Well, monsters sure do like you, don't they?" Dustin joked, putting Warfare away.

"Cerberus and Mrs. O'Leary are not monsters," Devin argued back at him. However, she knew they were monsters, but they had a soft side. The hellhound had been tamed and trained. Cerberus just wanted a play mate. The daughter of Hades turned her attention back to the three-headed dog. "It's been so long since someone came to play with you, hasn't it?" She looked at Laney and Dustin. "Which one of you wants to keep him entertained?"

"Why do we have to stay behind with him?" Dustin asked.

Devin kept petting the dog. "If we all leave, Cerburus will whine. My father hates it when he whines. I would stay, but I have a search to do."

Laney sighed, setting her bag down. "Fine. I'll stay."

Cerburus barked happily. Devin shushed him.

Dustin was anxious to go farther into the Underworld. The place gave him the creeps. He wasn't normally uncomfortable with that kind of stuff - he loved horror movies and bloody games for gods sake - but this place... Dustin could go without stepping foot here.

He and Devin left Laney alone with the three-headed dog. Devin told her just to play with him, and the daughter of Nike reluctantly nodded. Part of Dustin knew that she had stayed behind because she didn't want to be left alone with Devin. The two absolutely hated each other. Devin hadn't even wanted her to go on the quest, yet she gave into what the twins told her would be best for the mission and literally forced Laney to go by using the it-will-be-another-way-to-prove-yourself card.

"So..." Dustin said, looking around at parts of the Underworld as they passed by. "Is this search going to take long?"

"No."

"How can you be sure? In case you haven't noticed, this place is huge."

"It won't if you know where to go."

He raised an eyebrow. "And where are we going?"

"Elysium."

Dustin blinked. "Isn't that a movie?"

Devin groaned. "Gods, didn't Jacob teach you this stuff?" She sighed. "I have no idea if it is. I am not up to date with what's going on in the world today."

He suppressed a snicker. "I've noticed."

"Shut up." She narrowed her eyes into a glare. "Anyway, Elysium is one of the three places a soul can go to once they reach the Underworld." Devin paused as she rethought her last sentence. "Actually, one can also choose to be reborn, so that would make it four."

"One of the places is the Fields of Punishment. That is where a soul goes if they lived a life full of horrible deeds. If someone lived that kind of life, they're stuck there enduring punishment in very torturous methods," Devin explained to him. "My sister, Hazel, her mother was supposed to go there when she died along with Hazel. She was a very greedy woman." She sighed. "Then there are the Fields of Asphodel. That is where those who lived a neutral life go. Most souls go here. They lived a life that was neither good nor evil. Lastly, there is Elysium. It is the final resting place of good people and dead heroes. My brother wasn't exactly the best person in the world. His loyalties were not always straight, yet he died in battle saving someone's life."

"Oh." Dustin looked ahead.

He heard screaming. Pained, agonizing screamed and then he saw the flames. The scenes he saw were absolutely mortifying. The son of Ares saw people trapped amongst fires. He saw people stuck inside a cactus field. Then he saw a frail, angular man sitting under a tree.

Dustin too a guess. "The Fields of Punishment?"

Devin nodded. "My father has a lot  
of fun with the punishments."

They continued on their journey through the Underworld. Dustin was glad when they came across a place that seemed light and exciting. He could smell barbecue, and the whole place literally radiated happiness. Dustin was glad for the change. However, what stood between them and the haven was a gate.

"Why the gate?"

"My theory is so that no unworthy souls enter."

"And we can't get in..." Dustin let out a frustrated sigh. "So we just came all this way for nothing? Gods!"

"Just wait," Devin told him.

"No. I'm sick of this place. I'm sick of this quest."

"You'll get used to it," a new voice said. It made Dustin jump.

Standing that was previously empty was a boy with dark hair and black clothing. On his finger was a skull ring. He looked at Devin. "You finally showed up."

She nodded. "Dustin, meet my brother. Nico di Angelo."

xxxxxxxxxx

AN: Longest chapter so far. Yay!


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